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THE EARLY ROMANTIC DRAMA 
AT THE ENGLISH COURT 




A DISSERTATION 

SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF ARTS AND 

LITERATURE IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE OF 

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY 

(department of ENGLISH) 



BY 



LEE MONROE ELLISON 



A Private Edition 

Distributed by 

The University of Chicago Libraries 



A Trade Edition is Published by 

GEORGE BANTA PUBLISHING COMPANY 

MENASHA, WISCONSIN 

1917 



I 




THE EARLY ROMANTIC DRAMA 
AT THE ENGLISH COURT 



A DISSERTATION 

SUBMITTED TO THE FACTTLTY OF THE GR.\DrATE SCHOOL OF ARTS ASD 

LITERATURE LN' CXSDIDXQX FOR THE DEGREE OF 

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY 

(DEPAEXMEST op ENGLISH) 



BY 

LEE MONROE ELLISON 



A Private Edition 

Distributed by 

The University of Chicago Libraries 



A Tride Eiition i; Published by 

GEORGE B.\XTA PUBLISHISG COMPANY 

MEN.ASHA, WISCONSIN 

1917 






Gift -:. 
The Unl'veraliif 
MAY l\ t8»? 



CONTENTS 

Preface iii 

Chapter I 
Romantic Elements in the Early English Mask 1 

Chapter II 
The Influence of the Mask on the Early English Court Drama 39 

Chapter III 
The Early Romantic Drama of the Court 48 

Chapter IV 
Early Surviving Romantic Plays 87 

Chapter V 
The Early Romantic Drama in Contemporary Criticism 130 

Bibliography 141 



PREFACE 

Early in the course of my studies in Elizabethan drama I 
undertook, at the suggestion of Professor Manly, to prepare a 
bibliographical compilation of the sources of all romantic plays 
produced in England before the close of the skteenth century, 
in so far as these sources had been determined by previous research. 
Though designed merely as a preliminary exercise in the methods 
of graduate work, this survey proved both interesting and sug- 
gestive. It revealed the precise limits which had been fixed by 
the combined labors of former students in detennining the source 
relations of Elizabethan drama, and it suggested a comparative 
analysis of the plays of the period with a view to determining 
the relative importance of particular types of romantic Uterature 
in providing plot material for Elizabethan playwrights. 

Out of these rather general considerations came the suggestion 
for the present study. The attempt to reduce the varied forms of 
romantic appeal to something approximating regular classifica- 
tion served, of course, to emphasize the obvious conventionaUty 
in motive and incident which many plays of the period exhibit, 
and to demonstrate the fact that much of the plot material had 
been standardized, so to speak, and needed only to be assembled 
and adjusted. It soon became apparent, also, that the romantic 
devices and conventions which I had designated as "mediaeval," 
in contrast to those of Renaissance origin and affiliation, were 
overwhelmingly predominant during the early period of EHza- 
bethan drama. Thus the contact of mediaeval Uterature with 
the later romantic secular drama seemed to constitute a logical 
topic for investigation. But owing to the particularly fugitive 
character of all evidence bearing upon the history of the popular 
stage in England prior to the last quarter of the sixteenth cen- 
tury, it seemed advisable to rest my study upon the more stable 
foundation of the court performance. Here, at least, we are 
deaUng with a demonstrable matter. The appropriation of the 
materials of mediaeval romantic Uterature by the purveyors of 
royal entertainment is proved by contemporary records to have 
begun at an early date; and the sudden emergence of this form of 



VI ROMANTIC DRAMA AT THE ENGLISH COURT 

quasi-dramatic activity into real drama at the court of Eliza- 
beth had been provided for by many years of practically unbroken 
tradition. 

The period during which I have attempted to trace the develop- 
ment of the romantic drama is terminated naturally by the inaug- 
uration of new fashions and the popularizing of more novel themes 
by the promoters of dramatic innovation. The passing of the 
mediaeval vogue, in all but plebeian circles, may be thought of as 
complete by the year 1585. Its recrudescence upon the popular 
stage during the last decade of the century does not, of course, 
come within the scope of the present study. 

Perhaps it would not be out of place to add a word in explana- 
tion of the reasons that led me to include a discussion of the play 
Common Conditions in a dissertation which purports to deal with 
the survival of mediaeval Hterary conventions in the sixteenth 
century court drama. If my conjecture be correct, the story 
upon which that play is based reached the dramatist not through 
mediaeval channels, but in the form of an Italian novella. Never- 
theless, the story is characteristically mediaeval. The affiliation 
with the legend of St. Eustace and its analogues is sufficient proof 
of this. Furthermore, there could be no more striking indication 
of the strength of the heroic tradition in Elizabethan drama at 
this period than the care of the dramatist to supply whatever 
conventions were lacking in the narrative version. There is, 
to be sure, no direct evidence that Common Conditions was ever 
presented at Court; but in view of the extraordinary demand for 
acceptable drama, the assumption that so good a play was not over- 
looked by the Master of the Revels can hardly seem wholly unwar- 
ranted. Besides, I should like to repeat that I make no claim for 
the court play as a distinct genre. It is the character of the drama 
during an important period in its history that we are interested 
in tracing; and, since Common Conditions is one of the few surviving 
representatives of the kind of dramatic activity with which this 
dissertation is concerned, its exclusion could hardly be demanded 
on strictly logical grounds. 

In the pursuance of this study I have received indispensable 
assistance from certain members of the Faculty of the University 
of Chicago, which I take pleasure in acknowledging. To Profes- 
sor Manly I am indebted for the original suggestion, as well as 
for invaluable counsel upon matters of detail while the work was 



PREFACE Vll 

in progress. My obligations to Professor C. R. Baskervill are no 
less great. The results of my labors have in every instance passed 
under his immediate inspection, and whatever of merit this trea- 
tise possesses is due in no small measure to his influence. Finally, 
I have to thank Professor Karl Pietsch, of the Romance Depart- 
ment, for the generous interest which he has shown in my studies, 
and to express my gratitude for the valuable assistance which he 
has rendered me in getting together a working bibhography of 
the older romantic Uterature of Europe. 

L. M. E. 
Chicago, June 3, 1916. 



CHAPTER I 
Romantic Elements in the Early English Mask 
In the general obscurity surrounding the early history of Eng- 
lish dramatic literature the origin and development of the mask is 
traced with special difficulty. Not only is there an absence of 
any but the most meager of contemporary records or other sources 
from which accurate information can be drawn, but there is also 
an uncertainty as to the exact meaning of the terms in which the 
earliest recorded performances are described, that makes, it quite 
impossible to speak accurately of their character. Stow mentions 
mummings as having been presented in 1236 and again in 1298, 
and gives a detailed account^ of an exhibition in the nature of an 
elaborate dumb show which was arranged in the streets of London 
in 1377, "for the desport of the yong prince Richard son to the 
blacke prince." That the kidi with which Edward III cele- 
brated Christmas at the Castle of Guilford, in 1348, were drama- 
tic in character, seems to be indicated by the nature of the proper- 
ties and materials employed.^ These afford convincing evidence 
also that the taste for bizarre and gorgeous decoration so charac- 
teristic of the mask of the time of Henry VIII was of early origin, 
the entry in the accounts of the wardrobe for these performances 
including, among other things, "Eighty tunics of _ buckram of 
various colours, forty-two visours of various similitudes, . . . 
fourteen mantles embroidered with heads of dragons, fourteen 
white tunics wrought with heads and wings of peacocks, fourteen 
heads of swans with wings, fourteen tunics painted with eyes of 
peacocks, fourteen tunics of English linen painted, and as many 
tunics embroidered with stars of gold and silver. ' ' The few remain- 
ing references to mummings and disguisings during the thirteenth 
and fourteenth centuries throw little light upon their real nature; 
whether they were anything more than mere spectacles or the antics 
of disguised merry-makers and dancers, it seems impossible to 
determine with certainty.^ 

» Survey of London, ed. 1633, p. 78 f. See also Brotanek, Die Englischen Masken- 
spiele, (Wiener Beitrage, Band XV.) p. 6, and CoUier, Hist. Eng. Dram. Poetry, I, 26. 

= Warton, History of English Poetry, ed. Hazlitt, II. 72. Cf. also Accounts of the 
Expenses of the Great Wardrobe of King Edward III. Archaeologia, XXXI. 37 ff. 

3 For the controversy regarding the particular significance attaching to the early 
use of the terms ludi, disguisings, munmings and masks, the reader is referred to 



2 ROMANTIC DRAMA AT THE ENGLISH COURT 

By the middle of the fifteenth century, however, the species 
had become clearly differentiated. It had undertaken the pre- 
sentation of a definite theme, either by the interchange of speech 
between the characters, or by means of a descriptive and explana- 
tory monologue, and consequently deserves the dignity of being 
considered a variety of dramatic literature. We are able to speak 
thus positively, because we have, in the work of Lydgate, poetry 
written expressly as an accompaniment for the mask.* "Devy- 
ses for desguysings, " or ' 'mommynges, " is the name which Lydgate 
gives to these interesting and historically important productions. 
Strictly speaking, they are not, it is true, dramatic. They make no 
use of dialogue; nor do they develop their motive force from within 
through the reaction of character upon character. Their impor- 
tance in the history of the mask lies in the fact that they mark a 
point at which the disguisings, in addition to their spectacular 
appeal, undertook the presentation of an idea which is capable of 
rational and intelligible explanation. The mere grotesque shows 
continued to be exhibited, from time to time, until far into the 
reign of Elizabeth; but in the main the masks and court pageants, 
from the work of Lydgate onward, begin to have a theme, and it 
becomes possible to study them from the point of view of subject- 
matter. The nature of the themes which the early devisers of 
masks and pageants sought thus to represent objectively by means 
of costume and pantomime, the sources from which these themes 
were drawn, and the influence, if any, which such performances had 
upon the regular English drama, it will be the object of the pre- 
sent study to determine. 

In general, it may be said that the mask shows the same diver- 
sity in subject-matter as does the regular drama, and draws its 
material from the same sources. Of the mask poems left by Lyd- 
gate, one is a pure allegory, — a morality in monologue, — another 
is the allegorical presentation of a theme drawn from romantic 
sources, two others use the materials of classic mythology, a fifth 

Brotanek, Die Englischen Maskenspide, pp. 115-127; Reyher, Lcs Masques Anglais, 
pp. 13-28; J. W. Cunliffe, "Italian Prototypes of the Masque and Dumb Show," 
Pub.' Mod. Lang. Ass., 1907 (N. S. 15), pp. 140-56; Scherm, "Englische Hofmaskera- 
den," Studien zur Vergleichenden Literaturegeschichte, 9, 406-27. 

* Five of the si.x mask pieces of Lydgate are to be found in Brotanek, pp. 305-325; 
the other has been reprinted by Miss Hammond in Anglia, XXII, 364 ff. 



ROMANTIC ELEMENTS IN THE ENGLISH MASK 3 

presents biblical scenes and characters, while the sixth is the elab- 
oration of an idea drawn from popular literature. Here we have an 
exact parallel of the several types of the regular drama, and some- 
thing of the same variety continues to mark the mask until the 
close of the sixteenth century. There is one circumstance, how- 
ever, which helped to determine the general type of theme usually 
employed in the mask. Having its origin in royal fondness for 
gorgeous ceremonial and display, this species of dramatic activity 
remained throughout its history in close association with the life 
of the court. A majority of the masks produced in England before 
the close of the sixteenth century were not undertaken merely as 
ends in themselves, but were used to introduce dances, tourna- 
ments, and other forms of court entertainment. It was always 
primarily an occasional performance; and its functional character 
set rather narrow limits to the subject-matter which it might 
employ. The social and festive purposes which it was designed 
to serve called usually for matters of love and gallantry. Depend- 
ing largely upon symbolism and pantomime to express its meaning, 
it required a theme at once simple and striking; its fundamental 
conception had to be readily intelligible, and yet afford opportunity 
for the necessary scenic display. All these needs were admirably 
served by the romantic literature of the Middle Ages, and it was 
to the achievements of knightly heroes, the ceremonials of chivalry, 
and the ideals and sentiments of courtly love that the devisers of 
the early mask and court pageant most frequently turned for the 
ideas which they sought to embody in these pantomimic exhibitions. 
The romantic allegories which grew up around that unique 
mediaeval institution known as the court of love were particularly 
adapted to such treatment. Their personified abstractions lent 
themselves readily to symbolical representation under the figures of 
chivalry; and their motives furnished a convenient framework 
for the essential elements of pageantry and splendor. The various 
emotional states allied to the passion of love, when classified and 
labelled according to the approved mediaeval fashion, furnish a 
large number of valiant knights and fair ladies who move in the 
train of Venus and swear fealty to her laws. It is they who become 
the famiHar dramatis personae of much of the early mask poetry 
of the EngHsh court. Bien-Coler, Bel Acueil, and Dous Regart are 
to the court entertainment what their soberer kindred of the family 
of Fides, Spes, and Caritas are to the moraUty. 



4 ROMANTIC DRAMA AT THE ENGLISH COURT 

This particular type of symbolic literature was very volumi- 
nous, and extended over a period of several centuries. ^ Traces 
of its influence are discernible, in fact, until long after the victory 
of the modern spirit which brought in the Renaissance. Its char- 
acteristics, motives, and conventions may be adequately studied, 
however, in its most important single representative, the Roman 
de la Rose; and it is the influence of this stupendous work which 
no doubt accounts in a large measure for the popularity of romantic 
allegory in England during the fourteenth, fifteenth and early 
sixteenth centuries. 

Lydgate makes specific acknowledgement of his indebtedness 
to the Roman de la Rose in his mask of Fortune and the Four Virtues.^ 
"So here foloweth, " he says, by way of introduction, "the devyse 
of a desguysing tofore the gret estates of this land then being at 
London, made by Lidegate daun Johan, the munk of Bury. Of 
dame fortune, dame prudence, dame Rightwysnesse, and dame 
fortitudo. Beholdethe, for it is moral, pleasant, and notable. 
So first Cometh in dame fortune. 

Lo here this lady yee may see, 
Lady of mutabilytee; 
Which calleth is Fortune, 
Of seelde in oon she doth contune. 
For she hathe a double face, 
Right so every houre and space 
Sche chaungeth hir condycyouns 
Ay full of transmutatycions, 
Lyche as the Romans of the Rose 
Descryveth hir, withouten glose. 
And tellethe pleyne, how that she 
Hath hir dwelling in the see. " 

Lydgate's characterization of this "Lady of MutabiUty" is 
the conventional one given in Le Roman de la Rose'' and elsewhere 
in mediaeval literature. Her house, which stands upon an island 
in the sea, is so built that one side displays every beauty, but the 

* On the origin of allegory, its popularity during the Middle Ages, and the two 
sources, pagan and Christian, from which the court of love literature drew its symbol- 
ism, see Neilson, Origins and Sources of the Court of Love, (Harvard Notes and Studies, 
Vol. 6.) p. 8 ff. For a less higlily specialized discussion of the rise of modern allegory, 
see Courthope, History of Eng. Poetry, Vol. I, p. 341 ff. 

« Brotanek, pp. 309-16. 

' Cf. U. 6657 ff. 



ROMANTIC ELEMENTS IN THE ENGLISH MASK 5 

other is "ebylt in ougly wise" and ''ay in pointe to falle doun." 
At irregular intervals and always unexpectedly, there comes a 
flood, which deluges everything.^ She herself is as unstable as 
her house. To-day she lavishes favors on man; tomorrow she over- 
whelms him with calamity. Her vagaries with famous men of 
history are related, — how she made dupes of Caesar, Alexander, 
Croesus, and others, and how her promises, no matter how fair 
and alluring, are in no case to be trusted. The four virtues are 
in their turn given a similar allegorical characterization.^ 

Disquisitions upon the fickleness of fortune were very common 
during the Middle Ages, and appear to have been a sort of Hter- 
ary tradition inherited from classical literature. They are a 
characteristic of the group of mediaeval romances which have a 
more or less definite eastern affiliation, — the group of which Floris 
and Blauncheflur may be taken as an example. About the end of 
the twelfth century a certain Simon de Freine, canonicus at Here- 
ford, composed a Roman de la Fortune, a sort of free adaptation 
of Boethius's Consolatio Philosophiae.^^ The whole is in the form 
of a dialogue between a clerk and a personification of Philosophy. 
The clerk denounces, while Philosophy defends, the fickle goddess. 

What form of symbolism Lydgate employed to represent 
objectively the " transmutacyouns " of Fortune, we do not know, 
though doubtless it was some naive conception of which the accom- 
panying text was intended as an interpretation. The results which 
followed similar efforts on other occasions were often fantastic 
and highly amusing. Tradition described Fortune as without 
feet and as having a double face. Dramatic allegory therefore 
seized readily upon such striking characteristics. In a procession 
which welcomed Alfonso the Great upon his entrance into Naples, 
in 1443, Fortune was represented by a lady in a chariot, accom- 
panied by twelve young knights. The goddess herself wore hair 
only on the front part of her head, the back part being shaved, to 
represent the second face. Her fugitive character was further 

« Most of the details mentioned by Lydgate occur also in the House of Fortune 
in the Antidandianus of Alanus de Insulis (VIII, 1, T. Wright, Anglo-Latin Satirical 
Poems, VI, 268 ff.), which is described as receiving alternately the breath of Zephryus 
and the blasts of Boreas. 

" The date of this mask is not known, but the reference in line 267 places it some- 
where in the reign of Henry VI. 

'" Cf. Karl Voretzsch, Altfranzosische Literatur, Halle, 1913, p. 148. 



6 ROMANTIC DRAMA AT THE ENGLISH COURT 

symbolized by a special genius who sat upon the lower steps of the 
car, and who had his feet immersed in a basin of water." Petit de 
Julleville describes an odd device employed for a similar purpose 
in the French morality Bien Avise, Mai Avise-P "Un des tableaux 
les plus curieux de cette moralite est celui ou Bien Avise etait admis 
a contempler la roue de la Fortune. On voyait la Fortune mon- 
trant un double visage aux hommes, I'un riant, I'autre affreux. 
Sur la roue qu'elle fait tourner, quatre hommes sont attaches, 
qui lui servent de jouets, partes de bas en haut et de haut en bas 
par le perpetuel mouvement. Le premier s'appelle Regnabo; 
le second Regno; le troisieme Regnavi; le quatrieme Sum sine regno. 
Les quatre formules composent ensemble un vers hexametre: 
"Je regnerai, je regne, j'ai regne, je suis sans royaume. " Ainsi 
sont personniliees les vicissitudes de la grandeur. "^^ 

One of the earliest English court masks of which a full account 
has reached us is the " desguisinge " held in connection with the 
festivities accompanying the marriage of Prince Arthur and Cathe- 
rine of Arragon, in 1501.^* The motives and devices which it em- 
ployed became the stock material for similar performances through- 
out the sixteenth century. For this reason, and because of the 
fact that it used abundantly the matter and symbols of the roman- 
tic allegoriss which developed around the court of love idea, it is 
worthy of being examined in some detail. The contemporary 
description reads in part as follows: "Then began and entered the 
most goodly and pleasant disguising, convayed and showed in 
pageants proper and subtle; of whom the first was a castle right 
cunningly devised, sett upon certaine wheels, and drawne into the 
saide gret hall of fower great beasts with chains of gold . . . There 
were within the same Castle disguised viij goodly and fresh ladyes 
looking out of the windowes of the same, and in the foure corners 
of the Castle were iiij turrets ... in the which of every one 
. . . was a little child appareled like a maiden. And so all the 
four children singing most sweetly and harmoniously in all the 

" Cf. Burckhardt, The Civilisation of the Renaissance in Italy, Stuttgart, 1868, 
p. 421. 

12 Le Mistere du Bien advise et Mai advise, Imprime a Paris, par Pierre le Caron 
pour Anthoine Verard. 

^^ Repertoire du Theatre Comiquc en France an Moyen-Age, Paris, 1886, pp. 39-41. 

" Described in MS. Harl. no. 69, printed in The Shakespeare Society Papers, I, 
47, and also by Collier {History of English Dramatic Poetry, I, 58). 



ROMANTIC ELEMENTS IN THE ENGLISH MASK 7 

coming the length of the hall till they came before the K. Ma^'^' 
. , . The second Pageant was a shippe in likewise sett upon 
wheels without any leaders in sight, in right goodly apparell, 
having her mast-toppes, sayles, and her tackling, and all the 
appurtenances necessary unto a seemly vessel . . . until they 
came before the King somewhat beside the Castle . . . And out 
from the saide shippe descended down by a ladder two well beseane 
and goodly persons calling themselves Hope and Despair, passing 
toward the rehearsed Castle with their banners, in manner and 
form as Ambassadors from the Knights of the Mount of Love unto 
the ladyes within the Castle . . . making their means and en- 
treates as wooers and breakers of the matters of love between the 
K. and the L. The said ladyes gave their small aunsweare of 
utterly refuse, and knowledge of any such company . . . and 
plainly denyed their purpose and desire. The said two Embassa- 
dors therewith taking great displeasure, showed the said L. 
that the K. would for this unkind refusall make battayle and 
assault ... to them and their Castle, so that it should be grie- 
vous to abide their power and malice. 

"Incontinent came in the third Pageant in hknesse of a great 
hill, or mountain, in whom there was enclosed viij Knights . . . 
naming themselves K. of the Mount of Love . . . And the two 
Embassadors departed toward the Knights, being within the 
Mount, showing the disdain and refusall with the whole circum- 
stance of the same. So as they therewith not being content . . . 
went a httle from the said mount, their banners being displayed, 
and hastily sped them to the rehearsed Castle, which they assaulted 
so and in such wise, that the Ladies, yielding themselves, descended 
. . . and submitted themselves to the power, grace and will of 
those noble Knights . . . and daunced together many divers 
and goodly daunces^^ ..." 

The little bit of romantic drama underlying all this pageantry 
is conceived with characteristic naivete. The whole is not so 
much a representation of any particular court of love material as 
a free adaptation, to the purpose in hand, of its conventional 
s>Tnbolism and allegory. The simpUcity of the idea commends it; 
for symbolic pageants, even when ''proper and subtle," are not 
the most effectual means of refining upon and elaborating a partic- 
ular theme. What we really have here is the earliest recorded 
'' Loc. cit. 



8 ROMANTIC DRAMA AT THE ENGLISH COURT 

instance at the English Court of the attack upon the Castle of 
Beauty by the Knights of Love, a performance that was repeated so 
often during the ensuing century that we are struck by the apparent 
lack of ingenuity on the part of those whose business it was to 
supervise the royal festivities. The truth is that both the theme 
and the symbols by which it was presented are matters of remote 
tradition, and are associated with important elements in the 
history of human culture. The ship, the mount, and the castle; — 
since they are the devices about which much of the Court pageantry 
of the next hundred years is to be grouped, it seems worth while 
to inquire briefly into their origin. 

The ship, in particular, is a figure of great antiquity as a symbol 
and a decorative nucleus. It was originally, perhaps, the Ship 
of Isis, which was launched upon the Nile every year on the fifth of 
March, as a symbol that navigation had been reopened.^^ As 
a dry-land car it appeared in the processions of the spring festi- 
vals among various pagan peoples, especially in maritime districts. ^^ 
Its original significance appears in its substitution for the plough in 
the Plow Monday processions of the sea-coast towns of southwes- 
tern England.^* The possibilities which it offered for splendid and 
striking scenic display were early recognized. As the carrus nava- 
lis, sometimes more specifically as the car of Neptune, it was a pro- 
minent figure in the shows and pageants that passed through the 
streets of ancient Rome.^^ Having lost its original significance, it 
became simply an object of gorgeous and splendid pageantry, and in 
this capacity it continued to delight the eyes of beholders for many 
centuries. It appears conspicuously in the odd mixture of sacred 
and secular elements which made up the Corpus Christi Pag- 
eants and other ecclesiastical processions of the Middle Ages.^" 
In this connection indeed it may have retained something 
of its original pagan religious significance. ^^ As it brought the 
ambassadors from the Mount of Love to the Castle of Beauty, 
in the Tudor Court pageant, so, in the religious processions, it 
brought the saint, with his retinue from afar to participate in the 

'• Burckhardt, Civilisation of the Renaissance in Italy, p. 419. 
'' Cf. Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie. 

18 Cf. Chambers, Mediaeval Stage, I, 121. It was so used at Minehead, Ply- 
mouth and Deavenport, in the west of England and also at Hull, in the north. 
" Burckhardt, p. 419. 

^^ Cf. Burckhardt, Geschichte der Renaissance in Italien, pp. 320-332. 
^' Cf. Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie. 



ROMANTIC ELEMENTS IN THE ENGLISH MASK 9 

local celebrations." Gorgeously decorated ships appeared in 
regular flotillas in the "Trionfo," the Carnival, and other semi- 
religious festival processions of mediaeval Italy, and, as would 
naturally be expected, in the numerous pageants arranged by the 
courts and burghers throughout Europe. When Duke Borso 
came in 1453 to Reggio to receive the homage of the city, he was 
shown, among other things, a colossal car in the form of a ship, 
moved by men concealed within it.^^ When Isabella of England 
came to the continent to become the bride of the Emperor Fred- 
erick II, she was met at Cologne by a whole flotilla of such chariots, 
drawn by concealed horses and filled with priests in fantastic 
costume, who welcomed her with music and singing .^'^ In the case 
of the civic pageants it was usually deemed more fitting to assign 
the preparation and control of the ship to the guild whose occupation 
was most closely allied with the sea. Thus it usually fell to the 
fish-mongers. It was these tradesmen who, on the birth of Edward 
III of England in 1313, went to Westminster with a ship in full 
sail and escorted the Queen on her way to Eltham.^^ 

Doubtless the m.ost famous of all the civic pageants of Europe 
was "den grooten Ommeganck" maintained by the various trade 
guilds of the City of Antwerp and exhibited there on important 
occasions for several centuries. The most interesting account 
that has reached us from an eyewitness of this famous pageant is 
that of Albert Durer, in the narrative of his travels in the Low 
Countries in 1520.^^ In view of the commercial importance of the 
city, the ship pageants appearing in the procession are said to have 
been extraordinarily elaborate. The "Ommeganck" was revived 
as late as 1803, upon the occasion of Napoleon's visit to Antwerp; 
and for the entertainment of the famous guest, various pageants 
were d'vised, one of which was a warship of colossal proportions, 
fully rigged and manned as if for battle, and having fifers and 
drummers on board, with men in the yards and top-castles. ^^ 

^^"Ein Haupteffekt aber war das Scliiff mit der heiligen Ursula und ihren Jung- 
frauen, das namentlich in den Aufzeichnungen liber die Freiburger Frohleichnams- 
aufziige eine grosse Rolle spielt. " — Criezenach, Geschi'chle des neueren Dramas, I. 189. 

2' Burckhardt, p. 418, citing Annalcs Estens, in Murat XX. col. 486 ff. 

2" Schiiltz, Hofisches Leben, I, 620-21. 

^ Chambers, Mediaeval Stage, II, 167. 

^ An account of this celebrated pageant may be found in the Introduction to 
Fairholt's Lord Mayors' Pageants (Percy Society, X), pp. 9 ff. 

^' Fairholt, loc. cit. 



10 ROMANTIC DRAMA AT THE ENGLISH COURT 

The permanency of the ship as a decorative and symbolic 
figure of the Lord Mayors' Pageants in London is suggested by a 
speech of the dissolute apprentice Spendall, a character in the 
play known as "Green's Tu Quoque." ''By this light," he says, 
"I do not think but to be Lord Mayor of London before I die, and 
have three pageants carried before me, besides a ship and an uni- 
corn. "^^ And in such of these civic parades as found their way into 
history the ship was seldom lacking .^^ 

What is probably a survival of the association of the dry land 
ship with the spring festival of remote periods is seen in an odd bit 
of allegorical fiction which served as a prelude to a tournament 
held by Henry VIII in the second year of his reign. In the quaint 
language of Hall it is described as follows: "The first daye of 
Maye the Kinge accompaigned with many lusty Bachelers, on 
grete and well doinge horses, rode to the wodde to fetch Maye . . . 
and as they were returning on the Hill, mete with them a shippe 
under sail. The master hayled the Kinge and that noble com- 
paignie, and said that he was a Maryner, and was come from many a 
strange porte, and came hither to se if dedes of arms were to be 
done in the country.^" . . . An Heraulde demanded the name of his 
shippe, he aunswered, she is called Fame and is laden with good 
Renoune. Then said the Heraulde, if you will bring your shippe 
into the bay of Hardines you must double the point of Gentlenes and 
there you shall se a compagnie that shall medle with your merchan- 
dise. Then sayd the King, sythen Renoune is their merchaundise 
let us bye it and we can : Then the shippe shotte a peale of Gonnes, 
and sailed forth before the ELinges compagnie, ful of flagges and 
banners til it came to the tilte yarde. "^^ That afternoon the sports 

2'Fairholt, Lord Mayor's Pageants, p. 1 

'^'In Anthony Munday's Pageant of 1605 there was a "Shippe called the Royall 
Exchange" (Fairholt p. 30); in that devised by Middleton, in 1613, a ship sailed down 
Cheapside carrying the King of the Moors and his retinue (p. 35); in 1615 Munday 
appears once more with "a faire and beautiful shippe . . . stiled Joell (a play upon the 
Lord Mayor's name) attended by Neptune and the Thames" (p. 39); the ship in the 
1616 Pageant was named the Fishermongers' Esperanza, etc. (p. 41). Numerous other 
similar pageants are recorded. 

^° The parties to the contest which usually marked the Carnival, or Shrove Tuesday 
revelry, sometimes appeared upon the scene in ships, as if from a far country. Cf. 
Burckhardt, Gesch. dcr Ren, p. 326. 

'' Hall, Chronicle, containing the History of England during the Reign of Henry 
IV and the Succeeding Monarchs, etc., p. 467 In the Middle High German verse 



ROMANTIC ELEMENTS IN THE ENGLISH MASK 11 

began and lasted for three days, at the end of which time "the 
Queene made a greate banket to the King and all of them that 
had Justed: and after the banket done she gave the chefe price 
to the King. "31 

Returning to the other principal figures in the "disguising" of 
1501, the "mount" and the castle, we find that, hke the ship, 
they too were thoroughly conventional devices of mediaeval alle- 
gory and pageantry. Besides their allegorical function, these 
figures were utilized as a convenient means of presenting the dancers 
and actors in these pantomimic dramas before the audience in a 
striking and picturesque manner. They served as decorated cars, 
drawn by strange animals or by wild men^- ("wodwoses"), and the 
performers generally remained concealed in them until the desired 
point was reached, when they suddenly emerged before the star- 
tled beholders. Today we are inclined to laugh at the incon- 
gruities involved in a moving mountain and castle, or a ship passing 
in full sail down the city streets, but the allegorical sense which 
they were supposed to convey raised them slightly above the level 
of mere fantastic absurdities. Under this restraint they were 
usually so contrived as to show some degree of artistic or poetic 
feeUng.33 

romance, Moriz von Craon, there is an interesting parallel to the romantic frame- 
work of this tournament,— the expedition of Moriz to the chateau of the Countess 
of Beaumont. For the delight of the Countess he caused a magnificent ship to be 
built, complete in every detail. The cable-ropes were of red silk, and a massive 
golden anchor hung from the stern. The sails were silken banners bearing the mottoes 
and devices of the accompanying knights. Loading it with armor, lances, and other 
equipment necessary for a tournament, and hitching on horses, concealed beneath the 
drapery, he moved majestically through France until he came to the Castle of Beau- 
mont, where he fought a grand tournament with the knights of the castle, finally pre- 
senting the car with all its furnishings to the Countess. Cf. Moriz von Craon, ed. by 
M. Haupt, 621-1080. A later edition by Edward Schroder (Berlin, 1894) is interest- 
ingly reviewed by Gaston Paris, Romania, 23, 466 ff. 

'- Persons clothed in the traditional green to represent Robin Hood's foresters 
often preceded these pageants. The accounts of the various guilds which had charge 
of the Lord Mayors' pageants during the 17th century contain numerous entries of 
money paid to the "green men." 

^' Extravagances, however, were not wanting. Sometimes gigantic animals were 
contrived, out of which a number of masked figures suddenly emerged, as at Siena, 
in 1465, when at a public reception a ballet of twelve persons come of a golden wolf. 
Cf. Burckhardt, Renaissance in Italy, p. 415. 



12 ROMANTIC DRAMA AT THE ENGLISH COURT 

There appears to be no strict original in the court of love ro- 
mances for the "Mount of Love" in the sense in which it appears 
in the Tudor mask of 1501 and the other similar ones that fol- 
lowed it. One naturally suspects that the association lies ulti- 
mately with the name Venusberg and the various traditions which 
linked the subterranean palace of perpetual dehghts over which 
the goddess presided with particular mountains.^^ It is true 
that in none of the versions of this legend is there intentional alle- 
gory, though the delights of the underground palace are in general 
those of the allegorical castle of love. At any rate, with the exam- 
ple of innumerable castles, towers, pavilions and gardens of love 
before him, the artist of the Tudor pageant could hardly have 
claimed much originality for his conception. 

The "mount," with its gorgeous decorations and obscure 
symboUsm remained a favorite piece of pageantry at the Tudor 
court until near the end of the sixteenth century. Sometimes 
mere gorgeousness seems to have been the only end sought, as 
in the case of the pageant called "The Ryche Mount," prepared 
under the direction of Sir Harry Guilford for the feast of the Epi- 
phany in the fourth year of the reign of Henry VIII. ^^ The pageant 
was drawn by two "mighty woodwossys," or wild men, and con- 
sisted of a mountain of gold and precious stones "set with herbs 
of various kinds, and planted with broom to signify Plantagenet, 
and also with red and white roses; on the top a burning beacon; 
on the sides fleurs de lis. " 

A somewhat similar pageant, designed for the edification of the 
French ambassadors to the English Court, is described by Hall 
as having been exhibited on May 5, 1528. "All that day were the 
straungers feasted, and at night they were brought into the hall, 
where was a rock full of al maner of stones, very artificially made 
... In and upon the middes of the Rock sate a fayre lady richly 
appareled with a Dolphin in her lap. In this rock were ladies and 
gentlemen . . . and out of the cave in the said Rock came X 
Knightes, armed at all pointes, and foughte together a fayre tour- 
nay. And when they were severed and departed, the desguisers 

'* These traditions finally assumed a form corresponding in general to the modern 
Tannhiiuser legend; cf. Neilson, Origins and Sources of the Court of Love, pp. 133-35. 
For the early German version of the Venusberg see Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie, ed. 
Meyer, 1878, II, 780, 882. 

35 Letters and Papers of Henry VIII, ed. by Gairdner II, 1499. 



ROMANTIC ELEMENTS IN THE ENGLISH MASK 13 

descended from the rock and daunced a great space. . . . Then 
entered a person called Reaport appareled in Crymson satyn 
full of tonges setting on a flying horse . . . called Pegasus. This 
person in Frenche declared the meaning of the Rock and the trees 
at the Tournay."^^ It is to be regretted that the chronicler did 
not think it worth while to record this explanation. 

Other pageants in the form of gorgeously decorated ''mounts" 
and possessing some recondite allegorical significance which cannot 
now be determined were exhibited at various times during the 
reign of Henry VIII" Sometimes it was classical mythology 
instead of allegory which underlay the conception. In the procession 
that conveyed Anne Boleyn through London on her way to the 
Tower for the Coronation ceremonies, "there was the mounte 
Pernassus with the fountayne of Helicon, which was of white 
marble . . . On the mountain satte Apollo and at his feete sat 
Calliope, and on every side of the mountain satte iiii Muses plaiy- 
ing on several swete instruments."^^ 

Some idea of the elaborateness with which these pageants 
were prepared may be obtained from a glance into the account 
books of those court ofhcials who were entrusted with their pre- 
paration. Thus for the festivities at the coronation of Edward VI 
a "mount," which may have been one of those used in some of 
the early pageantry of Henry VIII,^^ was taken from the store- 
house of the Revels and employed twice, once in some unexplained 
connection at the Sanctuary in Westminster and again at Whitehall 
for a representation of the story of Orpheus.^'' These operations, 

^^ Chronicle, 595. 

" Cf. Hall, Chronicle, 723, and Letters and Papers of Henry VIII, II, 1494. 

'*Hall, Chronicle, p. 801. The "Mount of Parnassus" appeared also in "den 
grooten Ommeganck" of Antwerp (Cf. Fairholt, p. xxvii). In the Lord Mayor's 
Pageant of 1620, called "The Triumph of Peace," there was represented "Pernassus 
Mount, " with the Nine Muses and Mercury. The " maine pageant " of this procession, 
however, was a "mount where St. Catherine sat," attended by twelve maids of honor 
(Fairholt, p. 48). In one of Mimday's early pageants, Corinus and Gogmagog, two 
huge giants, were, "for the more grace and beauty of the show," fettered with chains 
of gold to "Britain's Mount" (Fairholt, p. 30). In the Pageant of 1623, devised by 
Middleton, appeared "Mount Royal," upon which were placed "six kings and great 
commanders, that were originally sprung from shepherds and humble beginnings" 
(Fairholt, 50). 

'' Cf. Kempe, Losclcy Manuscripts, 74. 

^^ The account rolls bearing upon the preparation and the employment of this 
mount are printed by Feuillerat, Documents relating to the Office of the Revels during 
the Reigns of Edward VI and Mary, p. 3, pp. 6-8 and notes. 



14 ROMANTIC DRAMA AT THE ENGLISH COURT 

together with the necessary repairs upon the "mount," required 
the services of twenty-seven carpenters and joiners, most of them 
working for periods of ten to fifteen days and for half as many 
nights; so that for this apparatus alone we read, "Summa of all 
the Charges of the Mounte . . . xxxiiij'' viif j"" : " ^^ 

For the castle and the attack upon it by the Knights of the 
Mount of Love, as represented in the disguising of 1501, "^^ there 
are innumerable parallels both in the romantic love allegories of 
the Middle Ages and in the many symbolical narratives of didac- 
tic literature. In view of its wide-spread use, it may perhaps 
be worth while to summarize briefly the development of the castle 
allegory/^ In early patristic hterature it soon became a conven- 
tion to represent the contest between Virtue and Vice under the 
symbols of battle and siege/^ Thus in an early and typical exam- 
ple*^ a certain king assigns to his three daughters. Fides, Spes, 
and Caritas, the guardianship of the town of Mansoul. For the 
defence of this town there are three castles, Rationabiiitas, Con- 
cupiscibilitas, and Irascibilitas. Each of the daughters is put 
in charge of a castle and given certain attendants, with such names 
names as Prudentia, Patientia, Sobrietas, Discretio, etc., to aid 
in the defence of it. The adversary in command of the army of 
Wickedness attempts to capture the city by assaulting the castles, 
but is finally beaten off by the army of Virtues. About this figure 
of mediaeval warfare didactic allegory established itself firmly, 
and finally came to include among its symbols most of the promi- 
ment characteristics of feudal society. Personified moral and 
spiritual qualities contended upon the battlefield and in the tour- 
nament with their corresponding adversaries in the categories of 
vice and wickedness. The figure of the castle was elaborately 

" Feuillerat, p. 8. The lasting popularity of the "Mount" in Tudor Court 
masks is seen in the entries of the expense accounts of the Revels office. We may be 
sure that it always possessed some allegorical or mythological significance, but the 
account books seldom throw any light upon this point. Feuillerat {Documents relating 
to the Office of the Revels during the Reign of Elizabeth) publishes expense accounts for 
"mounts" used in masks at the usual seasons in 1572-3 (pp. 160, 185), 1579-80 (p. 328) 
and again in 1581 (pp. 340, 345). 

^' See above, pp. 6-7. 

" I follow Neilson, Origins and Sources, etc., pp. 8 ff. 

"Traced by Creizenach {Gesch. d. n. Dramas, I. 467) to the Psychomacia of 
Prudentius, ca. 400 A. D. 

"One of the Parables ascribed to St. Bernard. Cf. Neilson, p. 21. 



ROMANTIC ELEMENTS IN THE ENGLISH MASK 15 

developed, all the various architectural details being employed 
in symbolic representation. Le Chasteau cf Amour, '^^ ascribed to 
Robert Grosseteste, and written early in the thirteenth century, 
is perhaps the best known, and in its relation to secular allegory, 
the most influential, work of this group. It is an allegorical repre- 
sentation of the body of the Virgin under the conventional figure 
of the Castle, and, though written in the form of a romance, it 
is wholly religious in character. 

The machinery and symbolism of this rehgious allegory were 
taken over by the allegorical romances which were born of the 
court of love enthusiasm. These are considerable in number, and 
extend from the beginning of the thirteenth through the early 
years of the sixteenth century. But the subject-matter of all 
of them is largely conventional. Personified emotional states 
allied to the passion of love take the place of the soldiers in the 
armies of vice and virtue; the castle and the fortress become the 
abode of Venus or the stronghold of some benevolent or malig- 
nant desire. The closely allied matters of love and gallantry gave 
new force to the old symbols of siege and warfare. In the color- 
less realm of personified abstraction castles are stormed, fair ladies 
rescued from peril, and wicked knights punished, in much the same 
manner as in the heroic romances of adventure. 

The assault of the allegorical castle by militant abstractions 
becomes one of the commonest of romantic motives, and occurs 
with slight modifications in the literature of practically every 
country of Europe.'*^ The classic instance, and evidently the 
model for many later imitations, is the siege of the Castle of Jeal- 
ousie and the Hberation of Bel-Acueil by the soldiers of Love, in 
the Roman de la Rose}^ 

The conception was an ideal one for representation in masks 
and disguisings. Its theme, simple in itself and widely familiar, 
could be almost completely expressed in terms of action, and there- 
fore ran no risk of not being understood; it furnished opportunity 
for scenic brilliancy and splendor, while the romantic idea under- 
lying it made it readily adaptable as a prelude to social and fes- 
tive occasions. 

^* Le Chasteau d' Amour, ed. by M. Cooke, London, 1852, for Caxton Society; 
discussed by Neilson, pp. 136-38. 

" Cf. Brotanck, pp. 325-26 for a few instances of its wide dissemination in Euro- 
pean literature. 

'^ Ed. Francisque-Michel, Paris, 1864, 11. 11, 252 ff. 



16 ROMANTIC DRAIVIA AT THE ENGLISH COURT 

That these advantages were justly appreciated by the devisers 
of court entertainments is attested by the frequency with which the 
motive is repeated; for in truth it recurs with sHght variations 
in almost monotonous regularity as an adjunct to Tudor festivi- 
ties. The earliest recorded instance is that of the disguising of 
1501, noted above. Many other similar exhibitions are described 
by the chroniclers or indicated by the official records of the office 
of the Revels. Sometimes these dramatized romantic allegories 
borrow perceptibly from the machinery and atmosphere of the 
heroic romances of adventure, especially when they serve as a 
framework for the sports of the tiltyard. This is true of the festivi- 
ties with which Henry VIII'*^ celebrated the birth of his eldest 
son. After the return from Richmond to Westminster, (Febru- 
ary, 1511) the king ordered "a solempne justes in honor of the 
Queene." Assuming the name "Cure Loial," the king chose 
three companions from among the courtiers, who were called "Bon 
Valoire," "Bon Espoir, " and "Valiaunt Desire," the whole party 
bearing the appellation "Les quater Chivaliers de la forrest Sal- 
vigne." These names were written upon "a goodly table," which 
was hung in a tree, in true romantic fashion. The " forest Salvigne" 
itself was represented by an elaborate piece of pageantry "twenty- 
six feet long, sixteen feet broad and nine feet high," according to 
the circumstantial details in the official account-books. Among 
the various embellishments are mentioned "hawthornes, oaks, 
maples, hazels, birches, fern, broom, and furze, with beasts and birds 
embossed of sundry fashion, with foresters sitting and going upon 
the top of the same"; and in the itemized expense accounts there 
are entries for "two dozen embossed birds," "2400 turned acorns 
and hazel nuts," "gold for gilding the antelope's horns," and 
"one pound vermiUion for the mouths of the lion and antelope."*" 
But the connected account of Hall affords a better idea of all this 
splendor: "Into the Pallys was conveyed a pageaunt of great 
quan title, made like a forrest, with rock, hills, and dales . . , 
with SIX foresters standing within the said forrest, garnished in 
cotes and hoods of grene Velvet ... In the middes of this for- 
rest a castell was standing made of gold . . . This forrest was 
drawen, as it were, by the strength of two great beastes, a Lyon and 

^'Cf. Hall, Chronicle, p. 517; also Lcilcrs and State Papers of Henry VIII, II. 
1494-5. 

" Letters and Slate Papers of Henry VIII, 11, 1494. 



ROMANTIC ELEMENTS IN THE ENGLISH MASK 17 

an Antelope . . . led with certaine men apparelled like wilde 
men or woodhouses . . . When the pageant rested before the 
Queene, the forenamed forsters blewe their homes, then the de- 
vise . . . opened on all sides and out issued the foresayd four 
Knyghtes, armed at all peces," etc.^^ They were confronted by 
the Earl of Essex with three companions, and so the jousts began 
and lasted all that day. 

At night the revelry was changed from jousting to dancing, 
the scene being Whitehall. The pageantry provided as a set- 
ting for this merry-making lost nothing in brilliancy, though its 
allegorical significance becomes somewhat more obscure. The 
representation w^as styled the "GoUdyn Arber in the Arche yerde 
of Plesyr," and there was the same attempt at gorgeous realism 
that marked the pageant of "La Forrest Salvigne." The arbor 
was set with "wrethyd pliers of shyning porpyll, kevyrd with a 
type in bowd gylld with fyne golld, rayled with costly Karou- 
fing, and thereover a vyen of sylver beryng grapes of golld; the 
benchys of this erber were set and wrought with kindly flowers, as 
roses, lillies, marygoUds, gelofers, piymroses, cowslyps and suche 
other; and the erch yerde set with orenge trees, pere trees, olyf 
trees, . . . and within this arber were sitting xii lordes and ladys, 
and without on the sydes were viii mynstrells, . . . and befor 
on the steps stod dyvers persons dysgysed, and on the top were the 
chylldren of the chappell synging, so that on this pageaunt were 
XXX persons, which was marvellous wyghty to remove and carry. "^^ 
From Hall's account^'' we learn that the pageant was preceded by 
"a gentleman richly apparelled," who explained the meaning 
which the device was intended to convey, but as the explanation 
was not recorded, we are none the wiser. All we know is that the 
chief participants bore such allegorical names as "Amour Loyall, " 
"BonFoy, " "Valiaunt Desire," and that "when the said pageant 
was brought forth into presence, then descended a lorde and a 
lady by copies . . . and daunced, that it was good to see."^* 

^'HaW, Chronicle, 519. 

" Letters and State Papers of Henry VIII, II, 14%. 

" Chronicle, p. 519. 

" A clerk in the office of the Revels left the following account of the sorry fate 
that overtook this gorgeous and costlj^ pageant. "This forrest or pageant after the 
ewsans had into Westmester Gret Hall (was) bj' the king's gard and other gentylmen 
rent, broken, and by fors karryd away, and the poor men that wer set to kep it, ther 
heds brokyn two of them, and the remnaunt put therfrom with forse, so that none 



18 ROMANTIC DRAMA AT THE ENGLISH COURT 

The castle was again assaulted as a part of the Christmas 
festivities at Greenwich in the third year of the reign of Henry VIII. 
Under the direction of Richard Gibson a castle was built, with 
towers and bulwarks, and fortified with ordnance "as gouns, 
hagbochys, kanuns, kortaws, chains of iern werke and seche like,"^^ 
and across the front was written "Le Fortresse dangerus. " Within 
the castle were six ladies. "And when the Queene had beheld 
it ... in came the king with V others . . . These six assaulted 
the castle, the ladies seing them so lustie and coragious were con- 
tent to solace with them and upon further communicacion to 
yield the castle, and so they came down and daunced a long space. " ^^ 

Our information is entirely insufficient to enable us to appre- 
hend the inner meaning of the disguising used to introduce the 
jousts in the tilt-yard at Greenwich in June of the following year. 
It began with a procession of ladies clad in red and white silk, 
riding upon coursers with trappings of the same material. Fol- 
lowing these came a pageant representing a fountain "with eight 
gargilles spouting water," and within the fountain sat the King 
impersonating a knight. Then came a lady " all in black, " followed 
by a knight in a horse litter, a gorgeous affair draped with black 
silk and fitted with silver trimmings. Then suddenly with a great 
noise of trumpets came in a pageant bearing the designation, 
"The Dolorous Castle" — somber in hue, as befitted its name. 
Immediately the jousts began between these two parties, "and 
ever the King break most spears. "^^ 

The Christmas holidays of the seventh year of the reign of 
Henry VIII (1515) were passed at Eltham, with the usual round of 
festivities. Hall tells us that "on the xii night in the hall was 
made a goodly castle, wondrously set out, and in it were certeyn 
ladyes and knightes, and when the king and queen were set, in 
came other knights and assayled the castel, wher many a good 
strype was geven, and at last the assaylauntes were beaten awaye. "^^ 
It will be noted, perhaps with some relief, that a slight element of 

therof but the bear tymbyr cum near to the kyng's use nor stoar. " Let. b" Papers, 
II, 1494. One member of the despoiUng party sold his share of the loot for £3, 14 s, 
8 d. Hall, 519. 

« Letters and State Pipers, II, 1498. 

s« Hall, Chronicle, 526. 

" Hall, Chronicle, p. 533. 

"Hall, Chronicle, 583. Letters and Slate Papers, II, 1499. 



ROMANTIC ELEMENTS IN THE ENGLISH MASK 19 

variety appears in the assault of the castle in this instance. In 
the first place, the king is a spectator and not a participant; and, 
second, the "assaylaunts were beaten awaye." This unusual 
denouement is partly explained by the fact that there were knights 
as well as ladies in the fortress. As long as the assaults were made 
upon the conventional castles of "Love" or "Beauty," it was of 
course necessary for social and allegorical reasons that the for- 
tunes of war should usually be unfavorable to the garrison, else 
the knights would have to resort to less spectacular means of 
securing partners for the dance. 

The romantic and social significance of the dramatic allegory is 
strongly accentuated in the description which Hall gives^^ of the 
festivities provided by Cardinal Wolsey for the night of Shrove 
Tuesday, 1522. The castle in this instance was provided with a 
principle tower and two less towers,''" in all of which cressets were 
burning. On the top of each was a banner, with mottoes explain- 
ing the allegory. This castle was kept by "ladyes with straunge 
names," — Beautie, Honour, Perseveraunce, Kyndnes, Constaunce, 
Bountie, Mercie and Pitie. Standing about the castle were eight 
other ladies with such names as Disdain, Gelousie, Malebouche, 
etc., who were "tired like v/omen of Inde. " The attacking party 
consisted of eight lords, — Amorus, Noblenes, Gentlenes, etc., 
"led by one all in Crymosin sattin with burning flames of gold, 
called Ardent Desire (the king), which so moved the ladies to give 
over the Castle, but Scorne and Disdaine said they would holde 
the place." Ardent Desire, however, insisted upon immediate 
capitulation. "Then the lordes ronne to the castle (at whiche 
time was a greate peale of gonnes) and the ladies defended the 
castle with Rose Water and Comfittes, and the lordes threwe in 
Dates and Orenges and other fruits made for pleasure." The 
place was finally won, despite the stubborn defense of Lady Scorne 
and her companions. "Then the lordes tooke the ladies as priso- 

^' Chronicle, p. 631. 

'" Much was made of the symbolism of the tower in the castle allegory. Cf . the 
tower of Doctrine, the tower of IMusic, the tower of Chivalry, etc., in Stephen Hawes' 
Pastime of Pleasure (Percy Society, XVIII, London, 1845). In Le Tresor Amoureux, 
usually attributed to Froissart, {Oeuvres de Froissart, ed. by Scheler, III, 52 ff.) there is 
a park guarded by eight towers, occupied by Diligence, Bonte, Beaute, Honneur, 
Maniere, Humilite, Atrempance, and Courtoisie (11. 325-49). In Bishop Grosseteste's 
Chasteau d' Avwur the castle is supported by four towers, each inhabited by one of 
the cardinal virtues, a detail often represented in the castle pageant. 



20 ROMANTIC DRAMA AT THE ENGLISH COURT 

ners by the handes and brought them downe and daunced together 
very pleasauntly. " 

An excellent illustration of the elaborate scale on which these 
Tudor revelries were conducted and the extraordinary length to 
which the participants were wilHng to go to secure the effect of 
realism in their mimic warfare is seen in the attack upon the Castle 
of Loyaltie which constituted the principal festive event of the 
Christmas season of 1525.''^ This enterprise was the result of 
"a chalenge of feactes of armes" and the culmination of a fiction 
that was solemnly acted by the whole court for a period of several 
days. It was pretended that the King, *'out of his bountifuU 
goodnes," had given to four maidens of his court the Castle of 
Loyaltie, to dispose of as they saw fit, and the maidens, anxious to 
insure its safety, had placed it in the custody of a very valiant 
band consisting of "a captaine and fifteen gentlemen with hym. " 
The Castle of Loyaltie itself stood in the tilt-yard at Greenwich, 
a massive structure twenty feet square and fifty feet in height, 
"very strong and of grete timber well fastened with yron." On 
all sides were great ditches fifteen feet in depth, "and thei were very 
stepe, and betwene the diches and Castle was set a pale whiche 
was rampaired with yerthe so stepe and thicke that it was not hkely 
to be gotten." The surrounding moat was duly provided with 
drawbridges. In fact, so complete were the preparations for 
defense that "when the strength of the castle was wel beholden, 
many made dangerous to assault it, and some saide it could not 
be won by sporte but by earneste." 

On Saint Thomas's Day, before Christmas, the band to whom 
the defense of the castle had been entrusted sent a herald into the 
Queen's chamber, the king being present, to announce to "all 
Kynges, princes, and other gentlemen of noble corage" that they 
were ready to answer all challengers. The Captain wished it to 
be known that "nere to the Castle he would raise a Mounte, on 
which should stand a Unicorne supporting foure faire shilds," 
red, white, yellow, and blue, and the challengers were to make 
known the nature of their challenge by touching a particular 
shield, a device often employed in the romances of chivalry. 

The assault did not begin at the appointed time, however. So 
formidable was the castle that the King, who of course was to have 
command of the challengers, had devised certain engines to be 

«' Described by Hall, Chronicle, pp. 688-9. 



ROMANTIC ELEMENTS IN THE ENGLISH MASK 21 

employed in the attack, "but the Carpenters were so dull that they 
understood not his entente and wrought all things contrary." 
The contest for the time being was transferred to the open field, 
but by the second of January the plans of the challengers were com- 
pleted, and the assault on the castle was begun. After a strenuous 
and picturesque siege which lasted for several days, its capture was 
finally effected. 

Romantic allegory, dramatically represented in the banquet 
halls and tilt-yards of English sovereigns, did not cease with the 
reign of Henry VIII. It still found favor with the knightly cour- 
tiers of Elizabeth. Court of love material, worn rather thin, it is 
true, but still recognizable, Hes at the foundation of the entertain- 
ments prepared by Thomas Churchyard for the Queen on her visit 
to Suffolk and Norfolk in 1578.^- The castle is lacking, but the 
usual characters, and the motives that inspired them, are present. 
A dramatic outhne for a tournament is provided as follows : Man- 
hode. Good Fortune, and Desarte are suitors for the favors of 
Beauty. In the inevitable conflict among the wooers, Manhode 
and Desarte are vanquished, the former being slain outright. 
Beauty, in her distress at the violence of the suitors, flies to the 
Queen for protection. 

The personal connection of the dramatic thread with EUzabeth, 
as seen in the last named touch, was a matter which was scarcely 
ever overlooked by the mask poets of this reign. Indeed one of the 
last, as well as one of the most ingenius and pleasing, of all the 
performances involving the castle motive was so contrived as to 
make of it an elaborate compHment to the Queen. It included a 
tournament, however, not as an appanage, but as an integral 
part of the whole. Our account of it is from the pen of Henry 
Goldwell, and is entitled "A Declaration of the Triumph Showed 
before the Queen's Majesty and the French Ambassadors on Whit- 
sun Monday and Tuesday, 1581."*^^ The demand for vraisemblance 
not being as strong as during the reign of Henry VIII, the castle 
was not actually constructed, but the gallery at the end of the 
tiltyard where the Queene sat to witness the contests was denomi- 
nated "The Castle or Fortress of Perfect Beauty." The chal- 
lengers were the Earl of Arundel, Lord Windsor, Sir Philip Sid- 

*2 Nichols, John, ed. The Progresses and Piihlic Processions of Queen Elizabeth. 
3 vols. London, 1788-1821, II, 179 ff. 

«3 Nichols, Progresses of Elizabeth, II, 310 ff. 



22 ROMANTIC DRAMA AT THE ENGLISH COURT 

ney, and Master Fulke Greville, who called themselves the "Foster 
Children of Desne. " They declared the Castle of Perfect Beauty 
to be their special patrimony, and announced their readiness to 
defend their right against all who should question it. The fiction 
began some weeks before the tournament actually took place. 
On a Sunday in April, when the Queen was returning from Chapel, 
a boy appeared before her, and delivered the speeches of defiance, 
after the manner of an ancient herald. The day appointed for 
the tournament having arrived, the four ''Foster Children" made 
ready to besiege the ''Castle of Perfect Beauty." Portable battle- 
ments were prepared, upon which were mounted two cannons, with 
gunners, and within the battlements were arranged "divers kinds 
of most excellent music against the Castle of Beauty." These 
things being ready, the attackers approached, first passing by for 
a near survey of the castle. The deji was repeated. The portable 
earthworks were moved as near as possible to the Queen, the music 
continuing without interruption. Then a boy appeared and sang: 

"Yield, yield, O yield, you that the fort do hold, 

Which seated is in spotless honor's field; 

Desire's great force no forces can withhold. 

Then to Desire's desire O yield, O yield. 

Yield, yield, O yield. Trust not to Beauty's pride! 

Fairness, tho fair, is but a feeble shield. 

When strong Desire, which virtue's love doth guide, 

Claims but go gain his due, O >ield, O yield. " 

Another boy sang a response, advising the attackers to rely only 
on forcible conquest. 

"xMarm! Alarm! Here will no >'ielding be! 
Such marble hearts no cunning airs can charm. 
Courage, therefore, and let the stately see 
That nought withstands Desire! Alarm! alarm!" 

When the songs were ended, the cannons were fired off, the one 
with sweet powder, the other with sweet water, "very odiferous 
and pleasant, and the noise of the shooting was very excellent 
of music within the mount." 

Then came the defenders in full retinue, each one attended by 
his servants and pages. One of the pages, disguised as an angel, 
assured the Queen that the dwellers in the house of Beauty had 
nothing to fear. The page of Sir Thomas RatcHffe then told her 
a romantic story of how his master, having suffered long in the 



ROMANTIC ELEMENTS IN THE ENGLISH MASK 23 

service of love, and having at last withdrawn himself from the 
world, had heard of the attack of Desire upon the Castle of Beauty, 
and was come to the rescue. The tilt then continued until night- 
fall. 

The next day the "Foster Children" returned for a second 
attack under the personal leadership of Desire himself, but after 
a spirited fight in the open field with the defending party, they 
decided, upon consultation, that it would be a presumption to 
storm the castle, and so surrendered themselves to the mercy of 
Perfect Beauty. 

The long reign of popularity which this romantic conception 
enjoyed at the English Court came to an end with the tilt-yard 
compliment of 1581, and we do not find it appearing thereafter 
as a framework for royal festivities.^'' A thoroughly mediaeval 
notion in origin and signification, it was at last displaced by newer 
and more artistic fashions in regal flattery and display. The ear- 
liest recorded instance of its dramatic representation in England is 
at the marriage of Prince Arthur and Catherine of Arragon, as 
described above. But it could hardly have been a novelty, even 
at that time. From carvings upon ivory caskets and figures upon 
tapestry, it would seem that the conception was familiar as early 
as the reign of Edward 11.^^ It is in fact quite likely that in this, 
as in several other instances, the court borrowed the traditional 
material of the May games and other popular celebrations. On 
the continent we have records of the siege of the Chateau d'Amour 
in connection with May-day festivities as early as the second decade 
of the thirteenth century. These correspond in methods of attack 
and defense, as well as in other characteristic details, to the repre- 
sentations in the English court masks of the sixteenth century. 
The Memoires of the French Society of Antiquaries^^ contain an 
account of such sports by the young people of certain villages in 
Switzerland. On the first Sunday in May a wooden Chateau d' 
Amour was built, and the assault made upon it in the usual manner. 

"The anonymous Masque of the Twelve Months, presented probably in 1612, 
employs a modification of it. See Inigo Jones. A Life, etc., ed. by Collier, Shak. 
Soc, 1848, pp. 131-42. 

^' Cf. article (cited by Neilson, pp. 137-8) in the Gentleman's Magazine, February, 
1835, pp. 198 ff., entitled On Ancient Caskets of Ivory and Wood. 

'^ Memoires et Dissertations sur les Antiquites nationales et fitrangeres, pub. 
by Soc. Roy. des Antiquaires de France, Paris, 1817, 1, 184-7. Cited by Neilson, p. 255. 



24 ROMANTIC DRAMA AT THE ENGLISH COURT 

From the same source, too, we have very interesting details of 
le siege du Chateau d^ Amour in the town of Fribourg. Inside the 
castle was a garrison of pretty girls, who conducted a stubborn 
but hopeless defense against an assaulting party of young men. 
The ammunition of both sides consisted of bouquets and festoons of 
roses; and after the capitulation of the castle all rode in procession 
through the streets, and the day ended in dancing and other forms 
of revelry. Further evidence of the remote origin of the assault 
upon the castle as a feature of popular merry-making is found in 
the account given by Rolandinus Pativinus of the festivities in 
the city of Treviso in the year 1214. Because of the striking simi- 
larity in general detail to several of the English court revels which 
we have been discussing, the passage may be quoted in full: 

"Zur Zeit dieses Podesta (des Albizi Florensis) wurde ein Hof- 
tag der Frohlichkeit. und Lustbarkeit in der Stadt Treviso veran- 
staltet, zu viel als mogHch Paduaner, sowohl Reiter als Fusssol- 
daten eingeladen wurden. Es gingen dahin auch eingeladen, um 
diesen Hoftag zu schmiicken, ungefahr zwolf Damen, von den 
edelsten und schonsten und am meisten zu Spielen geeigneten, die 
damals in Padua zu finden waren. Der Hoftag oder das Spiel war 
aber f olgendermassen : es wurde zum Scherz eine Burg gebaut und 
in diese die Damen mit ihren Jungfrauen, Geleiterinnen und Die- 
nerinnen gebracht, die nun ohne Beihulfe eines Mannes diese Burg 
weisUchst vertheidigten. Diese Burg war auch von alien Seiten 
mit solchen Befestigungen beschiitzt, namlich mit Bunt- und 
Grauwerk, mit Purpur-Sommet, Scharlachstoffen, Seidentiich- 
ern aus Bagdad und Almeria. Was soil ich sagen von den goldenen 
Kronen, von ChrysoHthen und Hyacinthen, von Topasen und 
Smaragden, von Rubinen und Perlen und von den Zieraten aller 
Art, mit denen die Damen ihre Haupter gegen den Angriff der 
Kampfer geschiitzt hatten. Auch die Burg musste erstiirmt wer- 
den und wurde erstiirmt mit folgenden Wurfgeschossen und Instru- 
menten: Mit Aepfeln, Datteln, und Muskatniissen, mit kleinen 
Torten, mit Birnen, mit Rosen, Lilien und Veilchen, zugleich mit 
Flacons, gefiillt mit Balsam, Parfums, Rosenwasser, mit Ambra, 
Kampher, Kardamom, Zimmt, Nelken, kurz mit alien Arten von 
B lumen und Specerein, die nur wohlriechen und glanzend sind. 
Von Venedig wohnten diesem Spiele viele Manner und mehrere 
Damen bei, dem Hoftage eine Ehre zu erweisen, und unter dem 



ROMANTIC ELEMENTS IN THE ENGLISH MASK 25 

kostbaren Banner des heiUgen Marcus kampften die Venetianer 

^"^C'^tiZ early English court mask so far e.a^ned 
have consisted almost entirely of attempts to '-PJ^^^^'/^^™;;^; 
cally, with the aid of various accessories of P^g^^"''^ ^f /^/^er 
tlon, the symbolism of the court of love romances^ But the other 
great branA of mediaeval romantic literature the -"of 
those knightly heroes who do not wear the cloak of symbohsm 
onuibuted scarcely less important elements T^e.^P-^,™^^,^; 
ideals of chivalry are common to both, and both d^^J^l''^'^, 
from very similar sources of romantic inspiration. When the con 
fficu between the personified abstractions of the ^ kgonxal roman- 
rf, are reoresented by English courtiers upon the tilt-yards at 
teenwirind Westin'inster, the ideals of -^nightly honor wl.ich 
all profess to follow are the same as those which guided the heroes 
of King Arthur's court in all the pursuits of love and war^ 

So vital in fact, was the Arthurian tradition during the Mid- 
dle Ages thit it exerted a pronounced influence upon the forms and 
cerem'onials of chivalry. At least twice in England and repeated^ 
on the condnent, were the association of the knights of the Round 
Tabt ^d other" traditional features of life at the ^^tic^ ^ur 
at Camelot established with solemn adherence to the details of 
romance. Roger Mortimer -to>-ed the Round Table at W 
worth, the company consisting of one hundred «. England s bravest 
kni»h s and as many of her fairest ladies.- At Windsor Edward III 
pr Sded ove, an association of twenty-five knights who assumed 
the names and simulated the characters of fr" ^oes^ 
The rules of arms alleged to have been promulgated bj I^"g ™ 
in fact governed the sports of the tilt-yard untd " ^^.'^^ ^^^"^ 
the fifteentii century, and the term "Round Table, ^ '^f. ^'7'' 
traveller Posidonius tells us, was the common designation for 

"Rolandinus PaUvinus, CLron. 1, 13., quoted by Schultz, Da. mfiscH, Ui.n 
mr Zeil dcr Minnesinger, Leipzig, 1889, I, 576. 

..Don,inus Rogerus de mortuo Mari ennumerabli mvU.tudme miUtum et 

doinina^Tapud ifenilwo.the co,„,ega.a ^^^^^^"-^ ^^^rmT^JZ 
™.„sis"etc (Tom Wykcs, qaoltdhy SA«\tz, Hofisches Lebenll-.m) u.alsonoi 
rSLylon's H«. Epis,. Mor,. /»W. V. 53 and ms,«re liU,a,re * la France, T. 

"' '^.^^.' Walsingham, Hirf. hrevis Ansliae ab Ed-mrdo I, ad Hen. V, London, 1574, 
fol. p. 117. 



26 ROMANTIC DRAMA AT THE ENGLISH COURT 

jousts and tournaments.'^*' The Latin chroniclers in fact almost 
invariably use the term, (sometimes restricting it to single com- 
bats) to describe the martial sports imitated from ancient chivalry. 
The account of those at Hesdin, in 1235, reads "apud Hesdinium 
ubi se exercebant ad Tabulam rotundum."^^ At the Abbey of 
Walden, in 1252, the express remark of the historian (Matth. Paris, 
p. 819) is that the English Knights tried their strength not in or- 
dinary combats, ''sed in illo ludo militari qui mensa rotunda dici- 
tur." The sports which Mortimer instituted at Kenilworth are 
described as "ludum mihtarem, quern vocant rotundam Tabulam, 
centum militum ac tot dominarum constituit. "^^ Such sports are 
forbidden by the Bull of Pope Clement V: "In faciendis justis 
praedictis quae tabulae rotundae in aliquibus partibus vulgariter 
nuncupantur, eadem damna et pericula imminent, quae in tornea- 
mentis praedictis, idcirco, certa causa idem justatum dum exis- 
tit."^3 

It has been suggested, and indeed appears quite probable, that 
the heroes of romance were, usually impersonated in these mar- 
tial sports and feats of gallantry.^* That such was the case through- 
out the reign of Henry VIII and later with respect to the somewhat 
more fashionable allegorical romances, we have had abundant 
proof. We have seen furthermore the elaborate fictions invented 
and solemnly acted by the courtiers of Henry VIII and Elizabeth as 
a framework for their chivalrous merry-making. In an inven- 
tory of the properties in the armory of the tilt-yard at Greenwich, 
made by George Lovekyn, clerk of the stable, at the direction of 
Sir Henry Guildford, Master of the Horse, in the second year of the 
reign of Henry VIII, are mentioned the arms of King Arthur, 
Brute, and Cadwallader, and "steel bards gilt with a trail of roses 
and pomegranates, with the story of St. George and St. Bar- 
bara."''^ Similar romantic conceptions are found in the fondness 
for dragons, monsters, etc., in Tudor court-pageantry and dis- 
guisings. The Rouge Dragon was a favorite badge of Henry 

'" Hist. lilt, de la France, T. 23, p. 470. 
'1 Schultz, Hofischcs Leben, II, 117. 

"Wilhelm Rischanger (1279) quoted by Shultz, Hofishes Leben, II, 117. 
'^ Grasse, Lehrbuch einer Allgemeine Literdrgeschichte, 4 Bde., Dresden, 1840, Bd. 
II, Abt. 3, s. 150 f., quoting Du Cange, Gloss. Med. Latin, T. Ill, p. 1049. 
'^ Cf. Hist. lilt, de la France, T. 23, p. 470. 
" Letters and State Papers of Henry VIII, III, 2, p. 1550. 



ROMANTIC ELEMENTS IN THE ENGLISH MASK 27 

VII/^ and acquired on this account special significance as an em- 
blem of Tudor grandeur. The procession which celebrated the 
Coronation of the Queen, in 1487, consisted of many "gentel- 
manie pageants," among which is mentioned "a. great redde dra- 
gon spouting flames of fyer into the Thames."" In the ancient 
painting at Hampton Court representing the meeting of Henry VIII 
and Francis I on the famous Field of the Cloth of Gold, the red 
dragon is shown flying over the head of Henry and accompany- 
ing him on his way.^^ The red dragon appeared again in the pro- 
cession which brought Anne Boleyn from Greenwich to the Tower 
for the Coronation ceremonies, in 15v33. The mayor and the citi- 
zens, at the invitation of Henry, had undertaken "to see the citie 
ordered and garnished with pageaunts in places accustomed, for 
the honor of her grace. " Leading the procession that moved up 
the Thames, and followed immediately by the Mayor's barge, was 
"a foyst or wafter full of ordinaunce, in which foyst was a great 
dragon, continually moving and casting wyld fyer, and round about 
the said dragon stode terrible monsters and wyld men casting fyer 
and making hideous noises."" Hall tells us further that on the 
left of the Mayor's barge was another "foyst" on which was a 
"mount," and "on the same stode a white Fawcon crowned, upon 
a rote of golde environed with white roses and red, which was the 
Queenes devise. "^° 

We have seen how the court of Arthur was "restored" at 
Kenilworth by Mortimer and at Windsor by Edward III. The 
precise extent to which the materials of heroic romance entered 
into these representations is not known, because of the meagerness 
of the accounts which have reached us concerning them. Of simi- 
lar enterprises on the continent at approximately the same time, 
we possess much more detailed information, and in these, scenes 
from the old romances were staged upon the tilt-yard, and legendary 
heroes performed anew their feats of gallantry and daring. One of 
the most famous was the grand tournament held at the Chateau 

'^ Glossary of Terms used in Heraldry, p. 297. 

" Cf. Chambers, Med. Stage, II. 170. 

" Fairholt, Lord Mayors^ Pageants, p. 11. 

" HaU, Chronicles, p. 799. 

*" A reference to the union of the houses of Lancaster and York by the marriage 
of Henry VII. Anne Boleyn's coat of arms was "argent, a chevron gules between 
three bull's heads couped sable, armed or." — J. Woodward, Treatise on Heraldry, p. 11. 



28 ROMANTIC. DRAMA AT THE ENGLISH COURT 

de Ham-sur-Somme, in 1278.^^ A proclamation from Dame Cour- 
toisie was circulated among the flower of European chivalry, and 
when the famous assembly had gathered, no less a personage than 
Queen Guinevere was chosen to preside. Among the other roman- 
tic figures specifically mentioned are Arthur's seneschal, Sir Kay, 
the famous Soeur d'Amour, a character in the Sir Cliges of Chres- 
tien de Troyes, who four times crossed the sea to Scotland and 
Northumberland to demand her lover whom another lady had 
imprisoned, and the Knight of the Lion, who at the command of 
Guinevere delivered four ladies from captivity. ^^ Among the 
historical personages who took part in the combats and the ban- 
quetting and dancing which followed was the famous Robert Compte 
d' Artois. Indeed, the roster of participants has been an impor- 
tant source of information in tracing the lineage of many ancient 
families among the French and Flemish nobility. 

Nearly three centuries later, and in a neighboring locality, 
the stirring deeds of mediaeval romantic heroes were dramatized 
upon a gigantic scale for the amusement of the most renowned 
sovereign of Europe, the Emperor Charles V.^^ This magnificent 
pageant was arranged by the Emperor's sister, the Queen of Hun- 
gary, at Bins, in Flanders, in 1549. The performance lasted two 
days, and embraced all the extravagant melodrama that mediaeval 
romance could be made to yield, — brave knights risking Hfe in 
the effort to relieve distressed beauty, awe-inspiring supernatural 
phenomena, magic castles, fiery dragons, wicked enchanters, dwarfs, 
and giants. None of the approved thrill-producing agencies seems 
to have been omitted. There were numerous single combats be- 
tween individual knights as well as between parties representing 
the opposing sides, but the whole centered about the siege of a 
castle, not the allegorical castle of Love, or Beauty, or Loyalty, of 
which we have had so many examples, but the conventional magic 
castle of mediaeval romance, in which fair ladies and brave knights 
had been imprisoned by a wicked enchanter. The leader of the 
rescuing party was Philip, afterward Philip II, and the assault 
was made with all the strenuousness of actual warfare. Finally, as 

*' Described in the so-called Roman de Ham. See De la Rue, Essais historiques 
stir les bardes, les jongleurs et les trourercs normands, Caen, 1834. 3 Vols. Vol. I, 
p. 148 ff. 

«2 De la Rue (I. 148) supposes that characters impersonating all the important 
Knights of King Arthur's Court appeared among the combatants. 

«' Described by Calvete de Estrella, Viage del Principe Don Filipe, pp. 188-205. 



ROMANTIC ELEMENTS IN THE ENGLISH MASK 29 

a fitting denouement for so wild a story, the castle vanished from 
sight, by virtue of its magical properties, and the performance 
came to an end.^* 

This magnificent affair had, as we have seen, many parallels 
at the English court during the reign of Henry VIII except for the 
fact that the EngHsh pageants, instead of drawing directly upon the 
romances of chivalry for their material, employed rather the chiv- 
alrous conventions as modified by the court of love romances. 
It is probable that some of the English tournaments of which we 
possess only scraps of information, such for instance as those of 
Edward III and his knights of the restored Round Table, ap- 
proached in grandeur and brilliancy the famous assembly at Ham- 
sur-Somme. It was real and not mimic warfare, however, that 
absorbed the energies of the English chivalry during the greater 
part of the turbulent fifteenth century. The Tudors brought a 
return to stable conditions, but the first of the line was too prac- 
tical and matter-of-fact to give more than a thought to play. But 
the accession of his young, buoyant, and pleasure-loving succes- 
sor brought a return of the old-time romantic atmosphere to the 
English court, which, save for the pall that enveloped the mid- 
decade, was to continue undisturbed throughout the sixteenth cen- 
tury. 

The traditions of chivalry, which had survived the ravages 
made among the older nobility by the Wars of the Roses, were not 
completely forgotten in the growing passion for the new culture of 
the Renaissance. Legendary heroes out of the old romances still 
continued to be familiar figures in English court life. When 
Prince Arthur visited Coventry, in 1498, the mythical son of 
Uther met him in person and made a speech of Welcome. ^^ Valen- 
tine and Orson participated in the festivities at the coronation of 
Edward VI. ^e 

'* This "disappearance" was effected in such cases by having the castle, etc., so 
constructed that its walls could be made instantaneously to fall flat. Such a contriv- 
ance figured in some unexplained way in a Court performance before Elizabeth, in 
1577. In the Revels accounts (Feuillerat, p. 345) we find entries for "Dragon with 
y" fyer woorkes, Castell with y^ falling sydes, " etc. 

'^ Brotanek, p. 5. 

^^ Edward the Confessor, St. George, and "numerous abstractions" were also 
represented. Cf. Nichols, Literary Remains of Edw. VI, (Roxburgh Library), and 
Chambers, Med. Stage, II, 17L 



30 ROMANTIC DRAMA AT THE ENGLISH COURT 

Arthur, Charlemagne, and Godfrey of Bouillon — the contri- 
bution of Christianity to the galaxy of immortal Worthies — con- 
tinue to make their appearance in company with their illustrious 
associates. The stubborn persistence of the Nine Worthies as lay 
figures in pageants and dumb shows is indicated by Shakespeare's 
burlesque in Love's Labour's Lost. The notion is characteristi- 
cally mediaeval, this balancing of three figures chosen from each 
of three eras of history. Christian, Pagan, and Jewish, who should 
stand as the concrete embodiment of imperishable renown. The 
Christian world was represented by the three celebrities named 
above, the Pagan by Hector, Alexander, and Julius Caesar, and the 
Jewish by Josua, DaAdd, and Judas Maccabaeus. In some instances 
slight substitutions were made in the first two groups, but hardly 
ever in the last; and sometimes as a compliment to local or national 
heroes, a tenth worthy was added, as Henry VIH in England, 
Robert Bruce in Scotland, and Bertrand de Gueschn in France. 

It is impossible to say when or by whom the selection was first 
made. In the Voeux du Paon Jaques de Longuyon had celebrated 
the groups as embodiments of all the ideals of knighthood. An 
anonymous work, written evidently during the reign of Charles 
VIII, was printed at Abbeville in 1487, with the title, "Le triumphe 
des neuf preux, auquel sont continus tous les faits et prouesses quilz 
on acheuez durant leur vies avec tystoire de Bertrand de Guesclin."" 
A second edition appeared at Paris in 1507, and a Spanish trans- 
lation by Antonio Rodriguez at Lisbon, in 1530. A "Roman de 
Judas Machabee" was begun about 1240 by Gautier de Belle- 
perche, and was finished by the Troubedour Pierre du Ries.^* 
It was later turned into a prose romance which we still possess, 
"Les excellentes, magnifiques ct triomphantes chroniques de 
tres — valeureux prince Judas Machabeus, un des neuf preux et 
aussi de ses quatre freres, transl. de latin en francais," by Charles 
de St. Gelais, Paris, 1514.^^ The orignial work appears to have 
been lost.^° 

*' Grasse, Lehrbucli, etc., II, 3. 394-5; Extract in Bibliothcque des Romans, \11S, 
Juillet, T. I, p. 141 et seq. 

** See De la Rue, Bardes, Jongleurs, et Trouvcres, II, 178. 

*' Grasse, Lehrbiich II, 3, p. 435. 

'"It is probably not the same as the extant "Raumant d' Auberon ensi que ses 
aves Judas Macabeus, " etc. Distinct from both also is the supposedly lost " Roumans 
du Roy Auberon et du Huon," which is believed to have been the original of the 
current prose romance "Huon of Bordeaux." See Grasse, II, 3, 435. 



ROMANTIC ELEMENTS IN THE ENGLISH ML\SK 31 

The Worthies enjoyed an extraordinary popularity in mediaeval 
and early modern England. They were nearly always found among 
the heterogeneous figures composing the pageants of the Corpus 
Christi Processions.^^ In an undated Harleian manuscript, the 
English national hero Guy of Warwick takes the place of Godfrey 
of Bouillon,^^ as does Robert Bruce in the Scottish "Ballet of the 
nine Nobles. "»' When Queen Margaret and Henry VI visited 
Coventry, in 1456, they were entertained with shows devised by one 
John Wedurley, among which was a separate pageant for each of 
the Nine Worthies. ^^ The occasion of the proclamation of Henry 
VIII as King of Ireland, in 1541, was celebrated with "epulae, com- 
oediae, et certamina ludicra," in which the Worthies played an 
important part.^^ The city of Dublin welcomed Lord Sussex upon 
his return from an expedition against James MacConnell in 1557, 
with a show of the Six W^orthies.'^" When Philip II came to Lon- 
don as the husband of Mary, in 1554, his sensibilities may well have 
been offended by a large painting of the Worthies which stood 
at the conduit in Gracechurch street. Henry VIII, who was given 
a prominent place among them, was represented as handing a 
Bible to Edward VI, and strong objection was made because the 
painter had not caused the Bible to be presented to Mary.^^ At a 
May Day celebration in London, in 1557, there was "a joly may 
gam in Fanchurch strett, with drumes and gunes and pykes, and 
the 9 Wordes dyd ryd and thay had speches evereman."^^ In 
Stephen Hawes' Pastime of Pleasure, Dame Fame, appearing to 
the dead Graunde Amoure, assures him that for his worthy demea- 
nor during life, his heroism in slaying the ugly giants, the fiery 
dragon, and in overcoming the seven metals of enchantment, and, 
above all, for winning the love of "La Bell Pucell the most fay re 
lady," his "renowne shall raigne eternally"; and to acquaint him 
with the true meaning of the immortality of fame, she recites in 
detail the glorious career of each of the Nine Worthies, of whom he 

«' Chambers, Med. Stage, II, 365. 

«2 Brotanek (p. 56) citing MS. Harl. no. 2220, fol. 7. 

^Ubid. citing Anglia, XXI, p. 359. 

'^ Coventry Lcet Book, quoted by Sharp, Diss, on Cov. Mys., 147. 

^' Chambers, II, 365. 

9« Chambers, II, 365. 

"'HoHnshed, Chronicles, III, 1091. Brotanek, p. 56. 

»« Brotanek, (p. 56), quoting MS. Cot. Vitellius, F. V., etc. 



32 ROMANTIC DRAMA AT THE ENGLISH COURT 

is now become the peer.^^ At the famous meeting of Henry VIII 
and Francis I at Ardres and Guines, in 1520, the traditional num- 
ber of the Worthies was raised to ten by the addition of Hector/ ""^ 
"The fyrst persone of the X," says Hall, "was apparelled like 
Hercules in a sliirt of silver and damaske written in letters of pur- 
ple about the border, 'en femes et infauntes cy petit assurance.' " 
A curtailment of the Worthies, with significant omissions and 
substitutions, formed the framework of the very elaborate pagean- 
try with which Henry VIII entertained the Emperor Charles V 
on the occasion of his famous visit to the English court. ^°^ Several 
of the shows were embodiments of recondite allusions to the various 
international quarrels then in progress. When Henry and his 
illustrious guest reached the Draw Bridge leading into the city, 
they found it securely guarded by two huge giants representing 
Hercules and Sampson, each bearing his traditional weapons, and 
both together supporting a great Table on which was written 
"all the Emperor's Style." At the middle of the bridge stood a 
splendid edifice occupied by Jason with the Golden Fleece. On 
one side of him stood a fiery dragon, and on the other two bulls, 
"the whych beastes cast out fyer continually." Passing on to 
the conduit in Gracious Street, they found a magnificent palace, 
at the entrance of which stood Charlemagne holding two swords. 
One, the sword of Justice, he gave to the Emperor; the other, the 
sword of Triumphant Victory, he committed into the keeping of 
Henry. Before him sat the Pope, to whom he gave a crown of 
thorns and three nails, accompanying them with explanatory 
verses in Latin. Next they passed to Leadenhall, where they 
found John of Gaunt presiding over a gorgeous pageant repre- 
senting all his descendants, "and on the top stood the Emperor, 
the King of England and the Queen, as three in the VI degree 
from the sayd duke." From thence they proceeded to the conduit 
in Cornhill, and found there a splendid palace surmounted by two 
towers. Under a cloth of state sat King Arthur, who was being 
served by ten kings, dukes, and earls. At the approach of the 
King and the Emperor, a poet addressed to them the following 
verses : 

"^ Pastime of Pleasure, cd. from edition of 1555, Percy Society, XVIII, London, 
1845, Chap. LXIII, pp. 208-12. 
'"0 HaU, Chronicle, p. 619. 
'M Described by Hall, Chronicle, pp. 63S-9. 



ROMANTIC ELEMENTS IN THE ENGLISH MASK 33 

"Laudat magnanimos urbs inclita Roma Catones 
Cantant Hannibalem punica regna suum 
Gentis erat Solime rex ingens gloria Davad. 
Gentis Alexander gloria prima sue. 
Illustrat fortis Arthuri fama Brittamios 
lUustras gentem Cesar et ipse tuam 
Cui deus imperium victo precor hoste secundet 
Regnet ut in terris pads arnica quies. " 

"And so they passed through the Poultry to the Great Conduit in 
Chepe where was made . . . four towers . . . and in the four 
towers were four fayre ladyes for the four cardinall virtues so 
richely besene that it was a great pleasure to beholde." Such 
pageants as this last were quite common; they originated evidently 
in an attempt to represent objectively a part of the allegory elab- 
orated by Bishop Grosseteste in his Chasteau d' Amour. ^''^ 

The materials of high romance, with a sUght admixture of 
mythological elements, entered largely into the entertainments 
which Leicester prepared for Queen Elizabeth on the occasion 
of her famous visit to Kenilworth, in 1575. Two contemporary 
accounts of these performances are left to us, — one by Gascoigne, 
who aided in preparing them, the other by the London tradesman, 
Laneham, upon whose mind they seem to have made a strong 
impression. ^'^^ And we can but admire the ingenuity with which 
the court poets fashioned the materials of Arthurian legend into 
an elaborate and tasteful compliment to the Queen. Much is 
made of the tradition that King Arthur once held court at Kenil- 
worth, though the dramatic elements in the entertainment center 
about the story of the Lady of the Lake, as told in Book IV of the 

"- See above, p. 19. One of the pageants forming the procession which escorted 
Anne Boleyntothe coronation ceremonies was a "Tower with four Turretts, and in 
every one of the four turretts stood one of the cardinall Virtues with their tokens 
and properties, which had several speaches, promising the queen never to leave her" 
(Hall, 802). Walsingham, in his accoimt of the reception of Richard II by the citizens 
of London in 1377, tells us of a pageant in the form of a castle with four towers, from 
the sides of which wine ran forth in abundance. In each tower was a beautiful virgin 
in white garments, and upon the approach of the King, they blew in his face leaves 
of gold and threw counterfeit gold florins upon him. (Cf. Fairholt, pp. 3-4.). 

^^ Both are printed in Nichols, Progresses of Elizabeth, I, B-H, 1-70; Gascoigne's 
account, "The Princely Pleasures of Kenilworth Castle," in Complete Works of Gas- 
coigne, ed. Cunliffe, Vol. 2, pp. 91-133; "Laneham's Letter," with much valuable 
supplementary matter, in the edition by Dr. Furnivall, Captain Cox's Ballads and Books, 
Ballad Society, London, 1871. 



34 ROMANTIC DRAMA AT THE ENGLISH COURT 

Morte D 'Arthur. They begin with a welcoming ceremony to the 
Queen. As the royal party was approaching the Castle, a sybil 
appeared, and, in a set of verses devised by Hunnis, assured her 
Majesty that only happiness and prosperity were to come to Eng- 
land during her reign. When the outer gates of the Castle were 
reached, there appeared upon the battlements six huge trumpeters, 
"much exceeding the stature of men in this age. By this dumb 
show it was meant that in the days of Arthur men were of that 
stature; so should Kenilworth seem still to be kept by Arthur's 
servants and heirs." On entering, the Queen found that the 
porter was no less a person than Hercules, "who being overcome 
by the rare beauty and princely countenance of her Majesty, 
surrendered himself and his charge," in a bad poem written by 
Badger. Inside the court the Queen was met by the Lady of the 
Lake herself, attended by two nymphs, "who came all over the 
Poole, being so conveyed that it seemed they had gone upon the 
water." She sketched the history of Kenilworth from the time 
that it had sheltered the mystical King Arthur, and delared that 
the intervening years had been for her a period of deep sorrow; but 
she announced her intention of coming forth from her retirement, 
since at last she had found one on whom she might bestow the 
love of which she had hitherto thought only Arthur to be worthy. 

Some days later the dehverance of the Lady of the Lake was 
represented. As the Queen crossed the bridge, on return from 
hunting, she was met by Triton, with a message from Neptune 
imploring her assistance in behalf of the distressed damsel, whom 
the wicked knight Sir Bruse-sans-pitie constantly pursued, with 
evil designs. Sir Bruse's grievance was, that the damsel had 
imprisoned his cousin Merlin within a rock, as a punishment for 
his inordinate lust. Neptune had done what he could to alleviate 
her distress. To keep her from falling into the hands of the wicked 
knight, he had enveloped her in the waves, where, according to 
the prophecy of Merlin, she must remain — the Lady of the Lake 
forever — unless she were liberated by the presence of a better 
maiden than herself. Therefore, Neptune sent to beseech her 
Majesty to allow the magic of her presence its full force in dis- 
pelhng the power of Sir Bruse. Triton having dehvered himself 
of this message, the Queen proceeded further on the bridge, where 
she was met by the Lady of the Lake, attended by two nymphs. 
Next appeared Proteus, sitting upon a dolphin's back, who sang a 



ROMANTIC ELEMENTS IN THE ENGLISH MASK 35 

song of congratulation, ''as well in behalf of the lady distressed, as 
also in behalf of all the nymphs and gods of the sea." We learn 
from Gascoigne that a battle between the knights of the Lady and 
the forces of Sir Bruse was arranged for, but not performed. 

An illuminating example of the vitality which the traditions of 
the age of chivalry still possessed in Elizabethan England is found 
in the romantic figure of the "Old Knight" Sir Henry Lee. His 
vocation in Hfe was the prosaic business of sheep-grazing, though 
much of his time was devoted to acting out the romantic dreams 
with which his mind seems to have been haunted. Anxious to 
prove his chivalrous loyalty when Elizabeth came to the throne, 
he conceived the idea of the hitherto non-existent office of Royal 
Champion, with himself of course as the incumbent. This office 
he continued to hold for more than thirty years, receiving later 
the additional dignities of Master of her Majesty's Armory and 
Knight of the Most Noble Order. Annually, on the 17th day of 
November, the anniversary of the accession, "in his great zeale and 
earnest desire to eternize the glory of her majesties court," he rode 
into the fists to prove by feats of arms that the flower of knight- 
hood still flourished in Elizabeth's dominions. 

Finally, on the thirty-third anniversary of the accession of 
Elizabeth, when the infirmities of old age would no longer allow 
him to perform the strenuous exercises which his office imposed 
upon him, he made a public resignation, accompanied with much 
elaborate and mystic ceremonial, in favor of the Earl of Cumber- 
land. These ceremonies took place in the tilt-yard at West- 
minster, in the presence of the Queen, the French ambassador, 
"many ladies and the chief nobihtie." At the foot of the stairs 
leading to the gallery where her Majesty sat, "the earth opening 
as if by magic," there appeared a pavilion made of white taffeta, 
"being in proportion like to the sacred Temple of the Virgins 
Vestal. " At one side stood an altar covered with a cloth of gold, 
upon which three candles were burning. Before the door of the 
temple stood a crowned pillar embraced by an eglantine tree, 
"whereon was a Table, and therein written (in letters of gold) 
this prayer following: 

"Elizae, etc., Piae, potenti, faelicissimae virgini, fidei, pacis, nobilitatis vindici, cui 
Deus ostra, virtus, summa devoverunt omnia. Post tot annos, tot triumphos animan 
ad pedes positurus tuos, sacra senex affixit arma. Vitam quietam, imperium, famam 
aetemam precatur tibi, sanguine redempturus suo. Ultra columnas Herculis columna 



36 ROMANTIC DR.\MA AT THE ENGLISH COURT 

moveatur tua. Corona superet coronas onines, ut quam coelum faelicissime nascenti 
coronam dedit, beatissema moriens reportes coelo. Summe, Sancte, Aeterne, audi, 
exaudi Deus. "i'^ 

The old knight was then disarmed and offered up his armour at the 
foot of the crowned pillar. Then kneeling, he presented to the 
Queen the Earl of Cumberland, as one anxious to serve her in 
the office of Royal Champion. Her Majesty gratiously accep- 
ting this offer, the new aspirant for knightly honors was duly armed 
and mounted upon his horse. In lieu of armour and helmet, the 
Old Knight then put on "a side coat of black velvet and a buttoned 
cap of the countrey fashion. " We are told further that *'for divers 
days hee wore upon his cloake a crowne embroidered, with a cer- 
taine motto or device, but what his intention therein was, he him- 
selfe best knew." For this occasion was written the well-known 
poem beginning, "His golden locks Time hath to Silver turn'd," 
etc., usually ascribed to Peele, but lately claimed by Mr. Bond for 
John Lyly.105 

The romantic mind of this old courtier was probably the source 
of many of the half whimsical fictions embodied in the enter- 
tainments and tilt-yard exhibitions designed for the amusement and 
flattery of Elizabeth.^''^ He is by no means the least interesting of 
the many brilHant figures that surrounded the person of the Queen, 
and none outdid him in simple, whole-hearted loyalty. His naive 
devotion, too, is said to have been graciously acknowledged by 
EHzabeth, who too often forgot the sacrifices of her more dis- 
tinguished servants. Unfortunately for his fame, his name is 
associated with one of the contemporary scandals, but this does 
not seem to have greatly impaired his popularity at Court. ^°^ In 
his epitaph we have the summary of the fife of an Elizabethan 
cavalier: ''He gave himself e to Voyage and Travaile into the 
flourishing States of France, Italy, and Germany, wher soon put- 
ting on all those abilities that became the backe of honour, es- 
pecially skill and proof in amies, he lived in grace, and gracing the 

^"^ The entire ceremonies are described in Segar, Honors Military and Civill, 
(1602) Bk. iii. Ch. 54. Cited by Bond, Works of Lyly, I, 410-16. 

'•^ See Works of John Lyly, ed. by Bond, I, 411-12. 

>'*The Queen's entertainments at Woodstock (1575) and Quarrendon (1592), in 
which he played so important a part, are reserved for discussion in another connection. 

'"'For several years, in his old age, he "lived for love" with Anna Vavasour, one 
of the Maids of Honor. 



ROMANTIC ELEMENTS IN THE ENGLISH MASK 37 

Courts of the most renowned Princes of that war-like age, returned 
home charged with the reputation of a well-firmed traveller, and 
adorned with those flowers of knighthood,— courtesy, bounty, 
valour,-which quickly gave forth their fruit ... as well in the 
fielde ... as also in Courte, where he shone m all those fayer 
partes [which] became his profession and vowes, honoring his highly 
gracious M"' with reysing those later Olympiads of her Court Justs 
and Tournaments . . . wherein himself lead and triumphed, carymg 
away great spoyles of grace from the Soveraigne, and renown from 
the worlde, for the fairest man at armes and most complete Courtier 
of his times" . . . etc. 

By virtue of his office as Royal Champion, Sir Henry Lee was 
usually the central figure in those odd mixtures of Mediaeval 
love-allegory and heroic fiction which formed the motif of the mar- 
tial exercises arranged for the amusement and flattery of the Queen. 
In these later times, the crude and gorgeous pageantry with which 
Henry VIII was accustomed to introduce his jousts and tourna- 
ments had given place to a simpler species of tilt-yard fiction in 
which the dramatic element was given a more definite literary 
basis This species includes the challenges to combat, the cartels 
and defies, wherein the adventurous knight announced m high- 
sounding terms some absurd proposition of love or war, the truth 
of which he proposed to establish by vanquishing in honorable 
combat all who dared to question it. The theses over which these 
contests took place were usually similar in character to the ques- 
tions proposed for the mediaeval love debate, though in most 
cases they were so contrived as to contain the point of the comph- 
ment, of which the whole affair was but the larger expression. A 
fair sample of this whole class of tilt-yard literature is the following 
"Cartellfor a Challenge": 

<A Herald reads > 
"To all the Noble Chosen and Hopful Gentlemen, in this most 
notable Assemble; the strange forsaken Knightes send greetings:— 
Whereas the Question hath ben long and often, and yett resteth 
doubtfull and undiscussed, whether that w^^ Menne call Love 
be good or evill; And that it is manifest that there be mame wor- 
thie Knights, in this p'ence, to whom Love is most dehghtfull, 
and his lawes no paynes; I bring this schedule, to sigmfie to all the 
gentlemen here that love armes, and fist to defend this course, 
that there be three armed and unknowen Knightes, here at hand. 



38 ROMANTIC DRAMA AT THE ENGLISH COURT 

of one mind and divers fortunes, that with stroke of Arm and dynt 
of sword, be come to defende against all that will maintaine the 
contrary, that Love is worse than hate, his Subjects worse than 
slaves, and his Rewarde worse than nought: And that there is a 
Lady that scorns Love and his power, of more Virtue and greater 
bewtie than all the Amorouse Dames that be at this day in the 
Worlde."io8 

To French influence has been attributed the improvement in 
simpHcity and rationaUsm of these romantic ceremonials at the 
Enghsh court. ^°^ French hterature of the period, it is true, abounds 
in models for such tilt-yard effusions as the one quoted above. 
Ronsard, in particular, is known to have been popular in Eliza- 
bethan court circles, and his work may have furnished the sug- 
gestion for the ideas underlying some of these performances. Be- 
sides Ronsard, Marot, Mehn de Saint Gelais, Philippe Desportes, 
and Jean - Passerot all have left literary expressions of similar 
chivalric whimsicalities. 

But whether or not a specific French influence be traced in this 
later tilt-yard Hterature, it is certain that the English Court in 
its occasional festivities had for a long time drawn largely upon 
sources in romantic literature for its material. Serving generally 
the occasion of balls, tournaments, and other forms of revelry, 
the mask turned to practical account the romantic allegories of 
the Middle Ages, while the romances of heroic adventure fur- 
nished it with appropriate themes for the fictions of the tilt-yard 
and the various other ceremonials of chivalry so popular at the 
court of the Tudors. The possible significance of these forms of 
semi-dramatic activity in the history of the romantic drama will 
be considered in the following chapter. 

^"'This, with several other mask pieces, was published by W. Hamper in 1821, 
as the work of George Ferrers, the title of the collection being "Masques: performed 
before Queen Elizabeth. From a coeval copy, in a volume of manuscript collections, 
by Henry Ferrers." Mr. Bond, on stylistic evidence, attributes it to John Lyly. 
See his edition of Lyly's Works, I, 410 ff. 

"» Brotanek, p. 283 ff. 



CHAPTER II 

The Influence of the Mask on the Early English Court 

Drama 

"The Tudor dramatists," says Professor Gayley, "did not 
make their art; they worked with what they found, and they 
found a dramatic medium of expression to which centuries and 
countless influences had contributed. "^ In the preceding chapter 
an attempt was made to show the nature and the extent of the 
semi-dramatic activity which manifested itself in the maskings 
and pageantry of the English court. As a result of the historical 
survey thus made, we are reminded that for three hundred years 
prior to the accession of Elizabeth the court had been the center 
of a genuine and spontaneous, even if primitive, form of mimetic 
endeavor; that tradition, in an ever lengthening chain, demanded 
the celebration of significant events and the observance of the 
chief hoUdays of the calendar with masks, shows, and royal sports, 
in which the dramatic element appeared in constantly increasing 
importance; and that the inspiration and the matter for these 
performances were drawn in large part from the most natural 
and in fact the only easily accessible source, the romantic litera- 
ture and traditions of the Middle Ages. In traversing the period 
from the earliest records to the middle of the sixteenth century, 
we thus pass in review a numerous progeny, similar in origin and 
purpose, but diverse in character — grotesque, fantastic, specta- 
cular — and all perhaps upon last analysis to be assigned a place 
in the dramatic categories. The question naturally arises, whether 
they were mere ephemera, possessing no interest beyond the occa- 
sion that called them forth, except to the antiquarian and the 
student of Kulturgeschichte, or whether a positive influence can 
be assigned to them in the forward movement toward an artistic 
and Hterary drama. The latter is undoubtedly the case. Among 
the many hidden springs that contributed to swell the flood of 
Elizabethan dramatic hterature, the "mummings and monstrous 
disguisings "of preceding ages are not the least important. 

What of vital importance to the mature drama can be speci- 
fically claimed as coming from a source apparently so unpromising? 

^Representative English Comedies, Vol. I, p. xxiv. 



40 ROMANTIC DRAMA AT THE ENGLISH COURT 

To be forced to meet the question in precisely this form would 
be to obscure somewhat its real bearing, but, even in that case, 
the reply might confidently be, that from such a source came 
something — not much, perhaps, but certainly a little — of all that 
is essential to the mature drama. A consideration of the historical 
relations between the true secular drama and the various forms 
of mimetic activity which for convenience are generically included 
in the term "mask," will show at what points the influence of the 
latter was exerted. 

As Professor Gayley reminds us, the Elizabethan dramatist 
did not begin ab initio, but directed to new and more artistic ends 
the dramatic impulses that had been expressing themselves more 
or less sporadically during the preceding ages. The distinct 
lines along which his inheritance had descended were those leading 
to the large body of ecclesiastical and didactic drama, to a much 
less extensive body of secular farce, to the dramatic element in 
the people's May games and other popular celebrations, and, 
finally, to the va.rious quasi-dramatic forms which grew up spon- 
taneously in the congenial atmosphere of the court. These are 
all roughly contemporary species of the dramatic kind, and each 
of them possessed characteristics which helped in the progress 
toward the literary drama. It is proposed in the present instance 
to single out the influence of the court performance for special 
consideration. 

It was ine\dtable that the dramatic instinct of the English 
race which manifested itself in the Latin tropes of the tenth cen- 
tury and which continued in the main to follow ecclesiastical 
channels for the next five hundred years, should express itself 
at last in a truly secular drama. A condition of such transforma- 
tion, however, was the recognition that sources other than the 
old scriptural-liturgical and didactic matter might be utilized 
for dramatic purposes. This seemingly obvious conclusion was 
arrived at only gradually, however, and appears to have been 
borne in on the collective consciousness from several sources. 
The first of these was a surviving tradition of Latin comedy which 
during the Middle Ages appeared both in the form of a narrative 
of Plautine and Terentian matter conducted by means of dialogue, 
and as Latin farce interlude, dealing with native material, the latter 
probably being very limited in extent. Along with this surviving 
classical tradition was a primitive folk drama, the precise impor- 



INFLUENCE OF THE MASK ON THE ENGLISH COURT DRAM.\ 41 

tance of which it is very difficult to determine, and which may 
itself have possessed a religious significance in remote pagan times. 
From either or both of these sources, or from the ecclesiastical 
drama itself, could have come the suggestion of the secular drama, 
but neither could have pointed the way to a body of material 
sufficient in scope and suitable in character for the support of such 
a drama. This important service may be justly attributed to 
the rudimentary forms of dramatic activity which had their incep- 
tion in the social festivities and martial games of the Court. 
We have seen how everywhere in Western Europe the exploits 
of legendary heroes were represented upon the tournament field 
and the tilt-yard; how in the England of the fourteenth century 
the associates of Mortimer and Edward III imagined themselves 
to be Hving in the mystical atmosphere of King Arthur's Court, 
assuming the names and pretending to follow the ideals, of its most 
famous characters; how m some instances, as in the famous meeting 
at Hamsur-Somme, in 1282, and in the elaborate entertainment pre- 
pared for the Emperor Charles V in which the future PhiUp II 
participated, gigantic dramas from heroic romance were represented, 
with a tournament field for a stage and with wonderfully effective 
impressions of realism and verisimilitude.^ Such traditions, more- 
over, we have seen surviving at the EngHsh Court until the 
end of the reign of EUzabeth, and exhibiting themselves in the 
vagaries and fantastic practices of the Queen's Champion, Sir 
Henry Lee. The most prolific source of material for Court masks 
and disguisings was, however, not the mediaeval romance of 
adventure, but the romantic allegories which grew up about the 
conception of the court of love. On the continent, as we have seen, 
themes of such character were represented in pageant and pan- 
tomime from the beginning of the thirteenth century. In England 
they are at least as old as the time of Richard II. The romantic 
atmosphere of the early Tudor Court was especially favorable 
to such exhibitions, and here they enjoyed high favor. We have 
seen how, at the Courts of Henry VII, and more especially Henry 
VIII, they were carried out with great elaboration, care, expense, 
and probably with no small degree of artistic success. The same 
hoary traditions we see emerging again, somewhat to our surprise, 
after Elizabeth had been for a quarter of a century on the throne, 
and being made by such cultured and scholarly courtiers as Fulke 

2 See above, Chap. I, pp. 28 ff. 



42 ROMANTIC DEAMA AT THE ENGLISH COURT 

Greville and Sir Philip Sidney to serve the purposes of royal com- 
pliment and flattery. 

The first approach to the materials of romantic secular litera- 
ture for dramatic purposes was made, then, by the court enter- 
tainment or festival in search of themes for masks and pageants. 
The dramatic element in these exhibitions, it is true, was not al- 
ways prominent, but the mimetic impulse was at work, and was 
taking a direction, too, in which it had previously had very Httle 
exercise. The matter of the popular farce was too limited in range 
and imaginative possibihties to allow it free play. The primitive 
folk drama contained very potent elements for general dramatic 
evolution, but it, too, lacked dignity and the approval of cultural 
tradition. The opening of a distinct literary source by these 
court festivals and entertainments brought with it entirely new 
possibilites. It meant not only that an approach had been made 
to the presentation in dramatic form of themes of simple secular 
interest, but that for the future secular drama the way had been 
found to the scenic, the spectacular, the wonderful — in short, 
to dramatic romanticism. 

It is worthy of emphasis also that the impulse which called 
these court shows and masks into being was purely artistic. The 
purpose of almost all the contemporary species of dramatic effort 
was instructive, or didactic and reformatory. Here was an abun- 
dance of rudimentary dramatic activity that was intended only 
to please and thrill. Crude and extravagant as some of them 
undoubtedly were, and eloquent of the barbarous tastes of the 
people who witnessed and acted them, they mark, nevertheless, 
a distinct advance in the direction of an artistic drama. The 
pitifully primitive aesthetic conceptions betrayed by the grotesque 
animal masks of Edward III, and two centuries later, by the similar 
ones of Edward VI, are not to be dismissed as merely absurd. 
They bear somewhat the same relation to the dramatic art of 
Hamlet or Lear that the cave man's club bears to the modern 
rifle. They not only represent the artistic instinct at work; 
they themselves are the very stuff out of which romantic art is 
made. They foster the sense that delights in the wonderful and 
strange — "the admyracion menne have for the thynges seldome 
seen,"^ The mask began and continued to be an independent mem- 
ber of the dramatic species. These early shows did not "evolve" 

' Hoby's Courtier, p. 55. 



INFLUENCE OF THE MASK ON THE ENGLISH COURT DRAMA 43 

through higher forms into the artistic drama, any more than the 
offensive and defensive weapons of primitive man evolved into mod- 
ern fire-arms. But in each case, man, in endeavoring to supply his 
wants, worked continuously through the ages to something better. 
In the court masks and disguisings we find dramatic activity no 
longer directed to ecclesiastical or didactic ends, but undertaken 
for its ov/n sake ; and when once the distinctly artistic attitude 
was taken, the way was opened for the entrance of the artistic 
imagination, and the consideration of aesthetic values and interests, 
all of which were matters of tremendous importance to the future 
history of the drama. 

Thus the early semi-dramatic revels and festivals at the English 
Court not only pointed the way to a source of material upon which 
the secular romantic drama might draw during the formative 
stages of its existence, but they were also largely instrumental 
in awakening and developing the aesthetic tastes and interest by 
which that drama should be controlled. As far as the dramatic 
realm is concerned, they afforded the first rude exercises of the 
romantic imagination directed to purely artistic ends. The idea 
that a secular purpose might underlie dramatic effort was of course 
not absolutely novel, but it had been given only slight attention 
by any distinctly cultural group. The inborn instinct which impels 
to artistic creation had been confined mainly to the primitive folk 
drama, where it had asserted itself with considerable vigor. On 
the whole, it is scarcely too much to say that by the close of the 
first quarter of the sixteenth century, the approach which had been 
made toward the conception of the drama as an end in itself had 
been largely by way of the dramatic element in court masks and 
disguisings. These, however, had been an incitement to a genuinely 
artistic, even if naive, productivity, and had given opportunity 
for the development of saner judgment and more aesthetic taste in 
matters of a dramatic nature. 

It would doubtless be easy to overrate the importance of these 
performances in promoting the development of the purely technical 
elements of the drama. It is freely admitted that their dramatic 
quality was seldom given prominence, being subordinated, as was 
proper in the mask, to the scenic and the spectacular. It is fur- 
thermore true that in the case of the earlier "shows" and ludi 
this quality was excessively crude and primitive. But passing by 
such exhibitions, whose only service to the drama consisted in 



44 ROMANTIC DRAMA AT THE ENGLISH COURT 

fostering a rude sense of the romantic and, possibly, in suggesting 
a future comedy of the grotesque, we come, as early as the beginning 
of the sixteenth century, to a t5Ape of Court performance which 
undoubtedly did exercise an influence of considerable importance 
in the development of dramatic technique. This of course is the 
attempt to express a romantic theme by a combination of pageant 
and pantomime, of which we found numerous instances at the 
Courts of Henry VII and Henry VIII. 

The regular romantic drama will have to acknowledge affilia- 
tion with these "by-forms" in other respects than mere similarity in 
theme and spirit, for in those acted fictions of the banquet-hall 
and tilt-yard all the methods of the regular drama are clearly 
foreshadowed. Here, for instance, was ample opportunity for 
training in the conception of dramatic situation. The incidents 
which the revellers at the Court of Henry VIII chose for panto- 
mimic presentation as a setting for the tournament or ball really 
meant something. They possessed significance and unity, and 
were capable of logical development in the necessary sequence 
of motive, action, and result. The Knights of the Mount of 
Love, with erotic designs, send their ambassadors to the Castle 
of Maidens. The maidens "give their small answer of utterly 
refuse," thus introducing the necessary obstacle, the conflict of 
wills, whereupon the knights assault the castle and capture the 
maidens. A mariner, in the good ship Fame, arrives at the Court 
of Henry VIII in quest of glory through noble deeds of arms. He 
is fittingly answered, and a tournament is arranged to give him the 
opportunity for which he is searching. We find in these and 
many other similar instances the essential elements of a rude plot, 
consisting of central motive, situations, and progression through 
acting characters to a more or less definite solution. Of course 
nothing complex can be undertaken in the analysis of motives 
and emotions as long as the means of expression and communi- 
cation consist chiefly in pantomime. But in the personification 
of the various emotions allied to the passion of love are dimly 
suggested a large number of the plot resources upon which the 
romantic dramatist of the future was to draw. In the gradual 
movement forward, too, the scenic and the spectacular are allowed 
to ursurp less of the interest, and mimetic opportunities for the 
characters are offered. This is seen in comparing the various in- 
stances in which the siege-of-the-castle motive was used. In the 



INFLUENCE OF THE MASK ON THE ENGLISH COURT DRAMA 45 

rnnrt Doets having contributed to its decoration. The singing 

psychological units but tney rudimentary 

T^ ter: Tefe^ineT by Lt^v^^ consistent with, and 
action were ^f^™^^ J They thus become m a 

n thr^omplex of character, they r.ay. m =^ .«;"-. b^;^;^'^^'^^,"^ 
as emotional constants in the P"^""^' ^^"f \'«";,f ^e of the 



46 ROaiANTIC DRAMA AT THE ENGLISH COURT 

tacle. The romantic imagination proceeds from the outer to the 
inner life, thus marking the advent of new and, to the modern 
mind, far more effective forms of romantic appeal. The old themes 
of the heroic and the supernatural lay quite without the limits 
of ordinary experience. These newer fictions of love and passion 
dealt with matters that touched Hfe much more intimately, and 
their significance for the vital drama is correspondingly greater. 

The dependence of the mask upon costume and pantomime 
in the effort to suggest personality insured the continuance of the 
mediaeval fashion of symbolical expression, but it happened not 
infrequently that the symbol took the form of a character from 
history — or at least from what the Middle Ages regarded as history 
— who should stand as the embodiment of the abstract quality. 
Hence the wide popularity of that carefully correlated group of 
manikins known as the "Nine Worthies." This might be taken 
as an early attempt to avoid the fatal thinness of the abstraction; 
and if so, we shall have to admit that it achieved some small degree 
of success, for undoubtedly it would be easier for an impersonator 
to suggest a shadow of individuality for Arthur or Godfrey of 
Bouillon than for "Dous Regart" or "Joyeus Penser." But the 
time for the real manifestation of character, to say nothing of its 
analysis and development, was far in the future. It is enough 
to claim for the early masks and disguisings that they made a 
feeble beginning. With every form of thought and expression 
under the sway of allegory, there was small hope that the incipient 
romantic drama would break the spell, certainly not while carrying 
the handicap of symbolism as its only means of expression. In 
one respect, however, this limitation may have operated to advan- 
tage. Being incapable of subtlety, the mask always ran the risk 
of not being understood. Only the salient, the broadly significant, 
attributes of personahty could be suggested; and the effort to be 
intelHgible probably led to a closer observation and a clearer 
perception of the essential elements of character. 

The most important service, however, which the early mask 
rendered in bridging the gap between the ecclesiastical and didactic 
plays and the artistic literary drama of the future was not in con- 
tributing to the improvement of the technical factors of the drama- 
tic art, but in fostering a taste for such a drama and in providing 
an atmosphere favorable to its development. The same demands 
which called into existence these dramatic entertainments at the 



INFLUENCE OF THE ]VL\SK ON THE ENGLISH COURT DRAMA il 

Court, and the same tastes by which such performances were 
controlled, resulted at last in completely freeing dramatic activity 
from the trammels of the miracle and the morality and in directing 
it solely toward artistic ends. The first chapter in the history of 
the secular drama in England, therefore, is in a large measure a 
history of the tastes and fashions of the Court. That these tastes 
were buoyantly and aggressively romantic we have had abundant 
evidence, covering the period from the accession of the Tudor 
dynasty until the closing years of the reign of Elizabeth. In the 
following chapter it is proposed to show how the budding romantic 
drama, fed thus from the soil of favoring tradition and warmed by 
the sun of royal patronage, grew rapidly to a period of vigorous 
and fruitful development. 



CHAPTER III 

The Early Romantic Drama of the Court 

We are accustomed to think of the EUzabethan romantic 
drama as drawing its plot material almost exclusively from foreign 
sources, and as finding its ultimate afhhation, as far as temper 
and spirit are concerned, with the influences which moulded the 
Renaissance. For the period during which the drama was rapidly 
approaching maturity, this is undoubtedly true. The way to the 
inexhaustible fund of romantic motive and incident in the Hterature 
of Italy and Spain had already been found before Shakespeare 
made his appearance; and in the work of his predecessors are dis- 
cernible some traces of that matchless technical skill whereby 
the borrowings from these sources were completely transformed in 
an atmosphere of imaginative ideahsm into the distinctive species 
of dramatic production with which his name will always be asso- 
ciated. But the romantic drama was not the creation of Shake- 
speare, nor even of the men whose work belongs to the decade imme- 
diately preceding him; and the raw material upon which those who 
first sought to satisfy the demand for a secular drama of the roman- 
tic genre served the period of their apprenticeship was very dif- 
ferent in character from the Italian story of intrigue or the exotic 
Renaissance pastoral. Long before the possibihties of these 
sources had been more than suggested, a romantic drama which, 
whatever may have been its other characteristics, was not lacking 
in vigor or vitality, had managed to subsist upon such materials 
as were available. We have seen how the native or the long 
naturahzed Hterature was drawn upon for the early Tudor mask 
and court entertainment. The romantic tastes and traditions 
thus fostered undoubtedly proved one of the strongest factors in 
creating among the courtly group a demand for the regular drama 
and in suggesting motive and incident for dramatic presentation. 
Without doubt, too, analogous influences were bringing into exis- 
tence a vigorous popular drama of the same general character, but 
unfortunately we are practically destitute of sources of informa- 
tion bearing upon the formative stages of its existence. So the 
first chapter in the history of the romantic secular drama in Eng- 



THE EARLY ROMANTIC DR-AMA OF THE COURT 49 

land has of necessity to be written from the rather meager records 
Iseot bv the Office of the Revels at Court. 

In view of the fact that the early drama drew so freely upon the 
vast fund of heroic and romantic legend which had accumulated 
during the Middle Ages, it is perhaps worth while to mqmre briefly 
into the nature and extent of the survmng mterest which it strll 
possessed for the England of the Renaissance We shall not be 
surprised to find the old hterature fallen somewhat mto disrepute. 
In the first place, it was almost entirely an expression of the spir- 
t of feudalL and chivalry; and since the social and intellec ual 
conditions out of which it grew had disappeared witli the passing 
of those institutions, it had lost in a large measure the hold upon 
the minds and imaginations of men which had once given t sig- 
^ficance. In the light of the new culture, too, it appeared strange 
and uncouth. Its formlessness and extravagance m«ted the ri- 
dicule of those who had felt the chastenmg influence of Greek and 
Latin hterature. and by the humanists generally it was contemp- 
tuously regarded as the rude imaginmgs of an age of barbarism, 
n another quarter also the old literature encountered enemies^ 
As part of the heritage of mediaevalism, it was associated in some 
minds with monks and monasteries, and so it came in tor a share 
Tthe bitter abuse which the champions of the Reformation heaped 
upon all things that bore a taint of Catholicism. Critics of the 
hitter school, however, are for obvious reasons even more uncom- 
promising in their hostihty to the Uterature a„d ideals of con- 
temporary Italy than to those of the Middle Ages. 

A t™Ll expression of the animosity which Puritan and Huma- 
nist alike entertained toward the old popular romantic hterature 
°s thetmih^r diatribe contained in Roger Ascham's S./.» te«.fe.^ 
but Ascham's vitriolic language sounds very much ^^^ '« '^ "^^ 
borrowed some of its intensity from similar expressions of the ear y 
humanists. The fashion of denouncing the old ^-^^^^^^^-^f J° 
have been set by Erasmus, who characterizes tales of Arthurs and 
Lancelots as "Lbulae stultae et aniles.- "Nothing hmders" 
he contends, " that a boy learn a pretty story from the anc'e"t poets 
or a memorable tale from history, just as readily as the stupid and 

. Cf. rfe Sdwohmslcr, Arber's Reprints, p. 80. The passage may be found in 
r.re^rv Smith's Elkatahan Crilical Essiiys. Vol. I, pp. 3-4. 

•W.H Woodward, £,«».,« concerntng the Aim and Method of Educatu,n, Camt. 

Univ. Press, 1904. p. lit. 



50 ROMANTIC DRAMA AT THE ENGLISH COURT 

vulgar ballad or the old wives' fairy rubbish such as most chil- 
dren are steeped in nowaday."^ An equally hostile critic was the 
Spanish humanist Vives, whom Henry VIII brought to the Eng- 
lish court as tutor to the Princess Mary. Vives expresses a moral 
as well as intellectual repugnance to the literature and the customs 
of chivalry. They are both vicious and silly, according to his 
view. The indebtedness of Ascham's famous denunciation is 
seen in the parallelism in language and sentiment to the following 
passage from Vives: "There is a use nowadays worse than amongst 
the pagans, that books written in our mother tongues that be made 
but for idle men and women to read have none other matter but 
of love and war: of the which books I think it shall not need to 
give any precepts. If I speak unto Christian folk, what need I 
to tell what a mischief is toward, when straw and dry wood is cast 
into the fire."'* He would prohibit by law the reading of "those 
ungracious books, such as be in my country in Spain, the Amadis, 
Floris and Tristan, and Celestina the bawd, mother of naughti- 
ness; in France, Lancelot du Lac, Paris and Vienna, Panthus and 
Sidonia and Melusine, and here in Flanders, the histories of Flo- 
rice and Blannchfleur, Leonella and Canamorus, Pyramus and Thishe. 
In England, Parthenope, Generides, Hippomedon, William and Mel- 
yor, Libius and Arthur, Guy, Bevis, and many others."^ 

With the first of the reformers thus arrayed in hostihty against 
all forms of romantic literature, and particularly against the roman- 
ces of chivalry, it is not to be expected that they would grow in 
favor as classical culture became more general and the movement 
toward Puritanism gained headway. The Puritan, "E. D.," 
author of the "Brief and Necessary Instruction," printed in 1572, 
laments the survival of the literature of Popery in the customary 
strain. "What a multitude of bookes," he says, "full of synne 
and abominations, have now filled the world! Nothing so childish, 
nothing so vaine, nothing so wanton, nothing so ydle, which is 
not both boldly printed and plausibly taken. So that herein we 
have fulfilled the wickednes of our forefathers and overtaken them 
in their syns. They had their spiritual enchauntmentes, in which 
they were bewytched, Bevis of Hampton, Guy of Warwike, Arthur 

'Woodward, Erasmus, p. 214. 

* Vives and the Renaissance Education of Women, ed. by Foster Watson, New York, 
1912, pp. 57-8. 

' Vives, ed. Watson, pp. 58-9. 



THE EARLY ROMANTIC DRAMA OF THE COURT 51 

of the round table, Huon of Burdeaux, Oliver of the Castle, the 
four sonnes of Amand, and a great many others of such childish 
follye. And yet more vanitie than these, the witles devices of 
Gargantua, Howleglas, Esop, Robyn Hood, Adam Bel, Frier Rush, 
The Fools of Gotham, and a thousand such other. And yet of 
all the residue the most dronken imaginations, with which they 
so defiled their Festival and high holy-daies, their Legendawry, 
their Saintes lyves, their tales of Robyn Goodfellow, and of manie 
other Spirites, which Satan had made, Hell had printed, and were 
warranted unto sale under the Popes priviledge, to kindle in mens 
hartes the sparkes of superstition, that at last it might flame out into 
the fires of Purgatorie. "'^ 

Similiar attacks upon the older romantic literature were made 
with comparative frequency, not only by avowed Puritans, but 
by those who wished to see it supplanted by the literature of classi- 
cal antiquity. Gosson,^ Nash,^ and Francis Meres^ all call the 
familiar roll of romance heroes, and speak of them with the same 
contemptuous disapproval. Occasionally an apologetic voice is 
heard in their defence. Sidney concedes that "Orlando Furioso 
and honest King Arthur will never displease a soldier. "^° Putten- 
ham, the author of The Arle of English Poesie, confesses to having 
"written for pleasure a Htle brief Romance or historical ditty."" 
John Taylor, the water-poet, declares — v/ith possibly an ironic 
intent, it must be admitted — that the legendary heroes of old are 
the world's example of martial valor. "In all ages and countries, " 
he says, "it hath ever bin knowne that famous men have flourished, 
whose worthy Actions and Eminency of place have ever bene as con- 
spicuous Beacons burning and blazing to the Spectators' view, 
the sparkes and flames whereof have sometimes kindled courage 
in the most coldest and most eft'eminate cowards. "^'^ A vigorous 
and able, though long deferred, reply to the charges of barbarism 
brought by over zealous classicists against the literature and cul- 

* This interesting preface is referred to by Dr. Furnivall in his Captain Cox's 
Ballads (p. xiv). It is reprinted in part in the Shakespeare Jahrbuch, vol. XL. pp. 
228-9. 

' Plays Confuted, Cf. W. C. Hazlitt, English Drama and Stage (Roxburghe Library). 

^ Anatomie of Absurditie, Smith, Eliz. Crit. Essays, I, 322-3. 

' Palladis Tamia, Smith, II, 308. 

^"Defense of Poesie (1787) p. 55. 

" Cf. Smith, Eliz. Crit. Essays, II, 43-4. 

'^ Quoted by S. H. Lee, edition of Huon of Bordeaux, p. xlviii. 



52 ROMANTIC DRAMA AT THE ENGLISH COURT 

ture of the Middle Ages is found in Samuel Daniel's Defense of 
Rhyme (1603). 

The frequency of the attacks upon the romances of chivalry 
and other types of mediaeval fiction is sufficient evidence that 
they still enjoyed a public among the Elizabethans in spite of the 
scorn of Puritans and classicists. There is no doubt, however, 
that ifwas in the main an apprentice, a distinctly bourgeois public. 
As long as they circulated only in manuscript, they remained the 
particular possession of the aristocracy, but with the introduction 
of printing came a demand for reading matter which Caxton, 
Wynkyn de Worde, Pynson, Copland, and others sought to satisfy 
with copious draughts from the fountains of Mediaeval romance. 
The aristocratic heroes consequently lost much of their exclu- 
siveness, and exchanged the limited patronage of the nobility 
for an infinitely larger circle of such whole-hearted admirers as the 
Warwickshire stone-mason, Captain Cox.^'^ We are not to suppose, 
however, that they ceased entirely to interest men of education 
and culture. The estimation in which they were held during the 
reign of Henry VIII is indicated by the fact that the eminent 
publicist and chancellor. Lord Berners, considered his time fitting- 
ly employed in turning into English The Castle of Love, Arthur 
of Little Britian, and the tremendously popular and influential 
Huon of Bordeaux. But the atmosphere of sensationalism and 
stirring adventure in the romances of chivalry recommended them 
particularly to the masses of Elizabethan England, and they were 
evidently bought and read with great avidity. Fourteen editions, 
or more exactly, reissues, of Huon of Bordeaux are counted between 
the first publication of Lord Berners' translation, around 1530, 
and the end of the century. Hazlitt lists thirteen extant editions 
of Be vis of Hampton, nine of which belong to the Tudor era. Guy 
was the hero of four romances and a drama. The latter was not 
printed until 1661, it is true, but its composition was probably 
not later than 1600. As the sixteenth century drew to a close, 
the interest of the pubhc in fiction of the mediaeval heroic type 
seems to have undergone no abatement. An examination of the 
various bibliographers' manuals shows that all the older native 
romances and those introduced from France during the fourteenth 
and fifteenth centuries were as attractive to the enterprising pub- 
lishers of the Elizabethan period as they had formerly been to 

''' Cf. Captain Cox's Ballads and Books {Lancham' s Letter), ed. Furnivall. 



THE EARLY ROMANTIC DRAMA OF THE COURT 53 

Caxton, Pynsod, and Wynkyn de Worde. During this period, too, 
the existing body of fiction of the mediaeval variety received impor- 
tant new additions. Various popular Spanish and French roman- 
ces that had not been previously translated were turned into Eng- 
lish and reissued in successive impressions. It was at this period 
that the heroes of the Amadis cycle were first introduced to English 
readers. Furthermore, the knights of the Round Table and other 
well known figures of mediaeval legend were assigned new adven- 
tures, and original romances were written in imitation of the old. 
Some of the more important accessions which Elizabethan prose 
fiction received in one or the other of these ways are the following: 

"A rare and straunge historicall novel of Cleomenes and Sopho- 
nisba, surnamed Juliet. Very pleasant to reade. Imprinted at 
London by Hugh Jackson, 1577." 

Hazhtt, Handbook, p. 457. 

''The Knight of the Sun. The first Part of the Mirrour of Princely 
D cedes and Knighthood. Wherein is shewed the Worthinesse of 
the Knight of the Sunne and his brother Rosicleer, sonnes to the 
Emperour Trebatio, with the strange love of the beautiful Prin- 
cesse Briana, and the vaHaunt actes of other noble Princes and 
Knights. Newly translated out of the Spanish into our vulgar 
English tongue, by M(argaret) T(iler). Printed by Thomas 
East, 1579." Hazlitt, p. 321. 

"Gerileon of England. The gallant, delectable, and pleasaunt 
Hystorie of Gerilion of England, containing the haughtie feates of 
Armes, and KnightUe Prowesse of the same Gerileon, with his 
Loves and other memorable Adventures. Composed in the French 
Tongue by Steven de Maison, and Now newly translated into 
Englishe. Imprinted by Myles Jennynges, dwelling in Paules 
Church-Yarde, at the signe of the Byble. 1583." 

Hazlitt, p. 47. 

"The Knight of the Sea. The Heroicall Adventures of the Knight 
of the Sea, comprised in the most famous and renowned Historic 
of the illustrious and excellently accompUshed Prince Oceander, 
Grandsonne of the mightie and magnanimous Claranax — Emperour 
of Constantinople, and the Empresse Basilia, and sonne unto the 
incomparable Olbiocles, Prince of Grecia, by the beautious Prin- 
cesse Almidiana, daughter unto the puissant King Rubaldo of 
Hungaria; wherein is described his parents' misfortunes and capti- 



54 ROMANTIC DRAMA AT THE ENGLISH COURT 

vities, his owne losse, straunge preserving, education and fostering 
by Kanyra, Queen of Carthage, his Knighthood, admirable ex- 
ploytes, and unmatchable atchievements, graced with most glo- 
rious conquestes over knightes, gyants, monsters, enchauntments, 
realmes and dominions: with his fortunate cominge to the knowl- 
edge of his parents in the greatest extreamitie of their cap tivi tie ; 
his combating, affecting and pursuites in his love towardes the 
rarely embeUished Princesse and lady-knight Phianora, daughter 
unto the invincible Argamant, King of England, by the gracious 
Princesse Clarecinda. At London, for William Leake. 1600." 

Collier, A Bibliographical Account of the Rarest Books in the 
Ejiglish Language, I, 440. 

This romance is of special interest inasmuch as it has been held 
by some critics to be a parody on heroic romance which anticipates 
Don Quixote. Hazlitt describes it as "A romance written in 
ridicule of the tales of knight-errantry" (Handbook, p. 321). The 
absurd extravagance of the title-page alone is certainly sufficient 
justification for such an assumption. Collier, however, regards 
it as a serious production. He says: "This is one of the few 
romances of the period when it was published not derived from 
some foreign original, and it is quite evident from perusal that it 
is not a translation." As to whether it is a mock romance, he 
says, "The point may perhaps be disputed, for although the style 
of the performance in many places is bombastic and conceited, and 
the incidents unnatural and extravagant, in this respect it goes 
but little beyond performances of the same kind which had been 
translated from the French by Anthony Munday and others." 
{Bibliographical Account, I, 444.) 

The Knight of the Sea bears evidence on every page of its kin- 
ship in spirit and tone to the romances of the Amadis cycle, espe- 
cially those which deal with the heroes of the third, fourth and fifth 
generations. Collier is quite correct, therefore, in putting it in 
the same category with Munday's renditions, through the French, 
of the Spanish romances. The subject-matter is perhaps sufficiently 
indicated by the title-page quoted above; and it is quite interest- 
ing to observe what original effort could produce in the way of 
varied and stirring, even though absurd, adventure in the domain 
of knight-errantry. The underlying motif is the familiar one of 
the lost son. Just before the birth of Oceander, his mother is 



THE EARLY ROMANTIC DRAMA OF THE COURT 55 

torn from her friends by a giant and carried away to sea, where 
the hero is born. Hence his name, and the device of the "Nep- 
tunian Kingdome" that later adorned his shield. In an effort 
to save his life, his mother entrusts him to a fisherman, by whom 
he is later delivered to the Emperor of Grecia. Though reared a 
Pagan, he is in the end converted to Christianity, learns the facts 
of his birth, and delivers his parents from imminent peril. Col- 
lier is probably right in denying any satirical intent in the romance, 
though the high-flown style in which it is written certainly lends 
color to such a view. The following passage may serve as an illus- 
tration of what Elizabethan prose might become under stress. 
Oceander, meeting in combat the British Princess Phianora, dis- 
guised as a wandering knight, has just struck off her helmet: — 
"Therewith, the buckles being broken have empoverished the 
helmet to inrich Oceander's eye-sight with the aspecting of the 
mxOst beautifull object that ever dame Nature by her deified cunning 
framed. For so soon as the proud helment was distennanted of 
so precious a head, such a bush of goulden twisted tressalines 
rained themselves into the bosome of the Princesse, as the Jove- 
sent showre of Pactolian gold into the lovely lap of Danae: which 
being handsomely disshevelled about her armed shoulders, made 
her resemble bright shining Cynthia in the gray clear Welkin in 
fashion, though farre exceeding her in favourable f airnesse : so angel- 
licall were the lookes of this divine and more than beawtifull Lady 
Knight, of whose sight, Hke the sun-gazing Indian, Oceander was 
so amazed, as like one transmuted, hee stoode still mute in a quan- 
darie, being of a great while not able to recover his over-ravished 
senses" (Chap. 12). 

"Pailadine of England. The famous, pleasant and variable 
Historie of Palladine of England. Discoursing of honourable 
Adventures, of Knightly deedes of Armes and Chivalrie. Trans- 
lated out of the French by A(nthony) M(unday). Printed by 
Edward Ailde for John Perin. 1588." 

Collier, Bibliographical Account, I, 549. 

"Palmerin d' Oliva, the Mirrour of Nobilitie, turned into Eng- 
lish by A(nthon)) M(unday), 1588." 

Collier, Bibliographical Account, I, 549. 

"Palmendas. The Honorable, pleasant, and rare conceited 
Historie of Palmendas, Sonne to the famous and fortunate Prince 



56 ROMANTIC DRAMA AT THE ENGLISH COURT 

Palmerin d' Oliva Emperour of Constantinople, and the Queen of 
Tharsus. Translated by Anthony Munday. Licensed 1589. 
Printed by I. C." Collier, Bibliographical Account, I, 550. 

"Primaleon of Greece. The famous and renowned Historic of 
Primaleon of Greece, sonne to the great and mighty Prince, Pal- 
merin d' Oliva. First Book. Printed for Cuthbert Burbie, 1595." 

Hazhtt, Handbook, 482. 

It is perhaps unnecessary to remark that the heroes of the last 
four romances are descendants of Amadis of Gaul. Thomas Pay- 
nell, who was at one time chaplain to Henry VIH, had translated 
the earlier books of the cycle in 1568. 

The Nine Worthies of London : explaining the honourable exer- 
cise of Armes, the Vertues of the Valiant, and the memorable 
attempts of magnanimous Minds. Pleasant for Gentlemen, not 
unseemly for Magistrates, and most profitable for Prentices. 
Compiled by i^ichard Johnson. Imprinted at London by Thomas 
Orwin, 1592." HazHtt, Handbook, 302. 

"The most famous History of the Seaven Champions of Chris- 
tendom . . . Compiled by .'i.ichard Johnson. Printed by Cuth- 
bert Burbie, 1596." 

"The Second Part of the famous History of the Seven Cham- 
pions of Christendom. 1597." 

Collier, Bibliographical Account, I, 411. 

"The Red Rose Knight. The Most Pleasant History of Tom a 
Lincoln, that Renowned Soldier, The Red Rose Knight, who for his 
valour and Chivalrie was sirnamed The Boast of England. Show- 
ing his Honourable Victories in Forraine Countries, with his strange 
Fortunes in the Fayrie Land; and how hee married the fayre Ang- 
Htora, daughter to Prester John, that Renowned Monarke of the 
World. Together with the Lives and Deaths of his two famous 
Sons, the Blacke Knight and the Fayre Knight, with divers other 
memorable Accidents, full of delight. The Seventh Impression, 
1635. By Richard Johnson." 

Collier, Bibliographical Account, I, 305. 

The three last named romances represent the work of a single 
writer in this recrudescence of mediaeval fiction — Richard John- 
son, whose output is avowedly addressed to the bourgeois London 
public, that public for which Heywood's Four Prentices was written 



THE EARLY ROMANTIC DR.\MA OF THE COURT 57 

and upon which the Henslowe stage must have depended for the 
better part of its patronage. These works seem to have enjoyed 
an extraordinary popularity, all having passed through several 
editions within a few years. The most interesting of the group, 
the Red Rose Knight, is usually described by bibliographers 
in the seventh edition, of 1635; but its existence as early 
as 1598 is proved by the fact that Francis Meres, in Pal- 
ladis Tamia, includes it, along with the Seven Champions, 
in the list of books ''hurtful to youth."" The work, in fact, 
is not wholly devoid of interest to modern readers. Its style is 
tolerable, and, in general the type of motive and incident, is 
not an absolute surrender to barren sensationaHsm. Though 
possessing the general characteristics of the older members of the 
class to which it belongs, it has certain traits that are distinc- 
tively Elizabethan. The chief of these is its tragic mood. Unlike 
the t>'pical romance of Chivalry, it fails to survive calamity, and 
conduct its hero with head-long optimism to an ultimate triumph 
over all difficulties. It shows, on the other hand, unmistakable 
effects of the popular taste which reveled in the tragic and bloody 
themes of Kyd, Marlowe, and their less worthy imitators, as will 
be evident from the following brief summary: — 

Tom-a-Lincoln, who later becomes the Red Rose Knight, is 
the fruit of the illegitimate love of King Arthur for the fair Angelica, 
daughter of one of his earls. Brought up by a poor shepherd in 
ignorance of his parentage, he becomes in youth a bold and daring 
outlaw, whose exploits reach the ears of the KJng. Arthur, on 
learning his identity, gives liim command of an expedition against 
the King of Portugal, over whom he wins a great victory. In 
quest of adventure, he next proceeds to Fairy Land, and is greatly 
beloved by the queen of that country, Celia, who presents him 
with a son (the Fayrie KnJght of the later story). Accompanied by 
Sir Lancelot, he next visits the court of Prester John, and, after 
winning the love of Anglitora, daughter of that monarch, persuades 
her to elope with him to England. On the return journey they are 
seen by CeKa, Queen of Fairyland, who, in despair at his faith- 
lessness, Hke Dido takes her own Hfe. On arriving in England, 
Tom and his wife are given a hearty welcome by his royal father. 
At this point begins part two of the story. A son (The Black 
Knight) is born to Tom and Anglitora, but their domestic happi- 

"Cf. Smith, Elizabetkatt Critical Essays, II, 308. 



58 ROMANTIC DRAMA AT THE ENGLISH COURT 

ness is short-lived; for King Arthur, dying, reveals the secret of 
Tom's birth, and Anglitora, ashamed of his illegitimacy, sets 
out secretly for her father's court. Guinevere's hatred of Tom is 
so intense that she issues a decree declaring him an outlaw, and 
forbidding anyone to speak to him upon pain of death. Tom's 
mother, Angelica, she condemns to speedy execution. Amid all 
this distress, the hero sets out to recover his lost wife. He is 
rewarded at last by finding her Hving as the mistress of a strange 
knight, and, upon asking for lodging at their castle, he is assigned 
to mean quarters, where, during the night, he is murdered by his 
former wife and her paramour, and his body is buried under a dung- 
hill. Like the ghost in Hamlet, his spirit returns to inform his 
son, the Black Knight, of the deed, whereupon the Black Knight 
avenges the death of his father by killing his mother. The two 
sons of Tom now meet, and fortunately learn the truth of their 
kinship. After many wanderings and many valorous deeds, they 
return to England; and at Lincoln, the birth-place of their father, 
they build a beautiful abbey, where, after a serene and pious old 
age, they at last find a resting place within its quiet walls. 

"The famous History of Pheander the Maiden Knight, how dis- 
quised under the habite and name of Armatius, a Marchant, he 
forsooke his kingdome of Carmonia for the Love of Amoretta, the 
most incomparable Princesse of Trebisond. Together with a 
true Narrative of the rare fidelity of his Tutor Machaon." 

Collier, II, 154—5. 

This romance was licensed in 1595, though no edition of so 
early a date is extant. There is no doubt of its existence during 
this period, however, as it is included in the proscriptions of Meres 
in Palladis Tamia (1598). ^^ It is mentioned also by Taylor, the 
water-poet, in the dedication of his Eight Wonder of the World 
(1613). The earliest edition described by Hazlitt is that of 1617.^® 

"Celestina. The Delightful Historie of Celestina the Fayre, 
Daughter to the King of Thessalie . . . done out of French into 
English by William Barley. Printed at London by A. I., 1596." 

Hazlitt, Handbook, p. 80. 

Mere's condemnation also includes a "history of Celestina," 
which was doubtless this romance, rather than a prose rendering of 
Calisto and Melibea. 



" Cf. above, p. 57. 
" Handbook, p. 511. 



THE EARLY ROMANTIC DRAMA OF THE COURT 59 

"Parsimus, The Renowned Prince of Bohemia. His most 
famous, delectable, and pleasant Historic. Containing his noble 
Battailes fought against the Persians. His Love to Laurana, the 
King's daughter of Thessaly. And his strange Adventures in the 
Desolate Island. With the miseries and miserable imprison- 
ments Laurana endured in the Island of Rockes, and a Descrip- 
tion of the Chivalrie of the Phrygian Knight, Polippus, and his 
constant love to Violetos. Imprinted at London by T. Crude for 
Richard Olive, 1598." Hazhtt, Handbook, p. 206. 

'^Bellianis. The Honour of Chivalrie, set downe in the most 
famous Historic of the Magnanimous and Heroicke Prince Don 
Beleanis: Sonne unto the Emperor Bellaneo of Greece. T. Creede, 
1598." Hazlitt, p. 35. 

''The Adventures of Brusanus, Prince of Hungarie. Pleasant for 
all to read, and Profitable for some to follow. Written by Bar- 
nabe Rich seaven or eight years sithence, and now published by the 
great intreaty of divers of his friends. London, for Thomas 
Adams, 1592." 

"The Famous Historic of Chinon of England, with his straunge 
Adventures for the love of Celestina, daughter to Lewis, King 
of France. With the worthy atchievement of Sir Lancelot du 
Lake and Sir Tristram du Lyons, for faire Laura, daughter to 
Cador, Earl of Cornwall, being all Knights of King Arthur's 
Round Table." 

This romance was the work of Christopher Middleton, and was 
entered on the Stationers' Register, January, 20, 1596. On January 
3, of the same year Henslowe records that the Admiral's company 
presented ''chinane of Ingland" as a new play. We are not to 
suppose, however, that the romance was made from the play, 
but rather that the play was based upon the romance while the 
latter was still in manuscript. ^^ 

The above list makes no pretension to being complete for 
all late sixteenth century romances of chivalry, but it is sufficient 
to show that, for a considerable section of the Elizabethan public, 
at least, interest in the type was far from extinct. The picturesque 
life of the Middle Ages was still clearly discernible in many of the 
customs and traditions of Elizabethan England, while its common- 

" Cf. Henslowe's Diar}', ed. by Greg, I, 179. 



60 ROMANTIC DRAMA AT THE ENGLISH COURT 

places and ugly realism had been so softened by time as to make its 
romantic glamour all the more appealing. The social and intel- 
lectual changes had not been so great that the past might not be 
easily and ideally reconstructed out of the stock of surviving tra- 
dition. It was for the massess that mythical era, "the good old 
days," before the spirit of the times became sordid and mean; the 
age when virtue and valor proceeded triumphant over all diffi- 
culties. For like reason, the past, softened and idealized through 
force of imagination, has always been a never-failing source of 
romantic inspiration. 

It is not surprising, therefore, that men should still continue 
to find pleasure in these legends of heroic achievement. They were 
extravagant and improbable, but they were full of stirring action. 
They celebrated accomplishment, the dominating personahty 
triumphing over the forces that hemmed him in. Such matters 
awoke a ready response among the Elizabethans. Nor did readers 
of that age trouble themselves greatly about questions of veri- 
simihtude. They Hved in an atmosphere of romantic exhilaration, 
in which the stubborn facts of hfe were readily forgotten. They 
could afford to allow wide limits to the probabilities of fiction so 
long as the actual experiences of their contemporaries in the domain 
of travel, adventure, war, and conquest challenged the license of 
romance. 

With these facts in mind it is even more easy to understand that 
the romances of adventure should have been drawn upon freely 
to satisfy the great demand for material for dramatic representa- 
tion which came with the rapid development of the romantic dra- 
ma during the reign of Elizabeth. Such rambling, episodic narra- 
tives were little suited to the stage, to be sure, but the series of 
extravagant adventures through which their heroes passed were 
sensational and thrilling enough to gratify the tastes of the early 
Ehzabethans in their craving for romantic excitement and stimu- 
lation. From our point of view, however, it seems incredible 
that such forms of romantic appeal should have been chosen appar- 
ently in preference to what to the modern mind is far more effec- 
tive. For certainly the choice of these heroic themes was not due 
solely to a paucity of material; and no fact of literary history is 
more obvious than that of their continued hold upon favor long 
after the way had been found to something better. Acquaintance 
with the romantic Uterature of the south had begun before the 



THE EARLY ROMANTIC DRAMA OF THE COURT 61 

close of the reign of Henry VIII. The Italian novella, translated 
first as the single verse tale and later in prose collections, began to 
be current not long after 1560. Yet it was not until the late 
eighties and nineties that they came to be freely utiUzed by the 
English romantic dramatists. In the intervening period a vigo- 
rous romantic drama had grown up, based almost entirely upon 
the older conventional material.)(^The dramatic staple was the 
heroic romance of the mediaeval pattern, and its selection seems 
to have been the result of no constraint, but of free choice. Such 
a predilection has perhaps already been sufficiently accounted 
for. The intrigue type of plot — the standard of the novelle — was 
less attractive to the early EUzabethan than the plot of adventure. 
The former had long been familiar to him through popular farce; 
the latter, while it possessed little of the interest of novelty, pro- 
vided the stirring action in which his soul delighted, and threw 
emphasis upon the heroic and masterful personaHty. But what- 
ever the explanation may be, the fact remains that mid-sixteenth 
century romanticism in England, as purveyed by the drama at 
least, was of that mediaeval kind which is addressed to the sense 
of wonder and awe, rather than the modern species which appeals 
to the sense that delights in contemplating whatever is remote 
from every day life, but still within the range of actual human expe- 
rience. / 

Very little of this early romantic drama has been preserved for 
us, and our materials for judging it are meager indeed. Bare re- 
cords of performances, which convey little information beyond 
mere titles, are practically all that we have, and quite possibly 
we know only a small part of these. Custom and tradition, how- 
ever, had made the Tudor court a center of dramatic activity. To 
the masks and other forms of revelry with which it had long been 
the custom to celebrate the holiday seasons, was added in time the 
regular drama, and the providing of suitable plays and masks for 
royal entertainment was an official function which received more 
and more attention with the passing of time. The development of 
the tastes and interests which made the atmosphere of the court 
extremely favorable to the young romantic drama has already been 
considered; and while it is doubtless true that the popular stage 
was a most potent agency in providing material for these court 
performances, a royal predilection for plays of the romantic spe- 
cies is, during the reign of Elizabeth at least, indisputable. 



62 ROMANTIC DRAMA AT THE ENGLISH COURT 

It is upon the records kept by the Office of the Revels, moreover, 
that we must depend mainly for our knowledge of the English 
romantic drama during the period of its incubation. From this 
source we learn the names of fifty-two of a considerably larger 
number of plays which were presented before Queen Elizabeth in 
the period between 1570 and 1585. Of these, eighteen, judging 
from their titles, were based upon themes drawn from classical 
history and mythology; ten must have been surviving moral 
plays or domestic comedies; while the remainder, twenty-four in 
number, seem almost certainly from their titles to have been roman- 
tic. These include themes drawn apparently from practically 
all the conventional romantic sources, — decadent Greek novel, 
Italian comedy and novella, Spanish pastoral, secularized saints' 
legend, and — most numerous of all— mediaeval romances of chivalry. 
In most cases, the identification of a recorded play with a parti- 
cular romance involves a large element of conjecture. We cannot, 
of course, be absolutely certain that a correspondence in title or in 
the names of leading characters means identity in theme or sub- 
ject matter, though the assumption that it does is usually a fairly 
safe one. In a few instances, though unfortunately in only a few, 
the assumption is strengthened by entries of appropriate stage pro- 
perties and other dramatic paraphernalia in the account rolls of 
the Revels office. At any rate, we can only conjecture as to the 
character of this large body of lost drama; and rational conjecture 
is both helpful and interesting, as indicating not only the source, 
but incidentally the type also, of the romantic drama during the 
period of its infancy. 

Beginning with the decade 1570-1580, when the mediaeval 
romance of chivalry appears to have been the favorite drama- 
tic staple, we find in the Revels accounts covering the period between 
December 1, 1571, and Shrove Tuesday, 1571-2, the following entry: 
"Paris and Vienna showen on Shrovetuesdaie at Nighte by the 
Children of Westminster."^^ The entries relating to the proper- 
ties employed in the presentation of this play are as follows: 

"To furryer — Sachary Benett for X dosen of Kyddes skynnes 
together with the workmanship by him and his servauntes doone 
upon the Hobby horses that served the children of Westminster 

'* Feuillerat, Documents relating to the Office of the Revels daring the Reign of Eliza- 
beth, Louvain, 1908, p. 145. 



THE EARLY ROMANTIC DRAMA OF THE COURT 63 

in the triumphe (where parris wan the Christall sheelde for Vienna, 
at the Turneye and Barryers) — in all . . . xlif vf."^^ 

"Morris Pickering and William Jening for mony by them dis- 
bursed for the hier of certeine Armour for the playe of parris and 
Vienna to furnish the triumphe therein and for Rewardes by them 
geven to the armorers that attended by thappoyntment of the 
seide Master . . . li'vf."^^ 

"Caparisons and furniture for the challengers and defenders 
with their horses, etc., and upon the targetts, weapons, garlandes, 
cronettes, and sondry other thinges."^^ 

Without the mention of the properties employed, we should 
be strongly inclined to associate this play with the "History of 
the noble and ryght valyant and worthy Knyght Parys and the fayr 
Vyene the daulphyns doughter of Vynnois," translated from the 
French and pubhshed by Caxton in 1485; and the uncommonly 
expHcit record of the stage accessories employed leaves no doubt 
in the matter. The choice of this particular theme for dramatic 
presentation is a conspicuous example of good judgment at a 
time when current fashions must have inclined to bombastic melo- 
drama. Paris and Vienna has been called the most beautiful of 
all the romances of chivalry. Hazlitt, in the introduction to his 
reprint of the Caxton edition, in the Roxburghe Library (1868), 
says: "In the whole compass of early romantic fiction of a chival- 
ric character, I do not remember at any time to have met with a 
book so peculiarly simple and unaffected in its structure and style 
as this. I will scarcely go so far as to say that probability is never 
violated, . . . but assuredly there is freedom, with much charm, 
from many of the vices which beset such productions, extravagance 
of conceit, tediousness of digression, farfetched incidents, and tur- 
gid phraseology."" The romance is of Catalonian origin, having 
been translated into Provencal about 1430, and into French, by 
Pierre de la Sippade, in 1459.^3 Its early popularity is attested 
by the fact that by 1525 it had been translated into eight lan- 

'^ Feuillerat, Dociinicnls, p. 141. 

■"> Ibid. 142. 

^^Ibid. 135. 

^ Loc. cit. p. V. 

^ The Old French version, with specimens of the Catalonian, Spanish, and Italian 
texts, has been recently (1902) edited, with a scholarly introduction and notes, by 
Robert Kaltenbacher, and published in Romanische Forschungen, XV, 321-688a. 



64 ROMANTIC DRAMA AT THE ENGLISH COURT 

guages; and it is extant in no less than twelve manuscripts and 
sixty-one distinct editions. Its bibliographical history is espe- 
cially brilliant. "Parmi les romans de chevalerie que recher- 
chent aujourd'hui les amateurs," says a modern editor, "il en 
est peu d'aussi rares que 1' Histoire du chevalier Paris et de la 
belle Vienne, et cependant il n'en est point qui ait ete plus souvent 
imprime. Nous ajouterohs qu'il n'en est aucun qui puisse se 
prevaloir d'une genealogie letteraire aussi complete. Les Per- 
ceval, les Tristan, les Lancelot meme ne souraient inscrire sur 
leur pennon bibiiographique autant d' editions ou de traductions 
que le chevalier Paris. "^^ 

Paris and Vienna is a simple and affecting story of faithful- 
ness in love between a brave and modest young knight and a high- 
born lady, without any of the clap-trap of giants and magicians 
which too often robs the romances of chivalry of their interest 
for modern readers. Its adaptability to dramatic representation 
may be judged by the following summary of its leading incidents : 

During the time of King Charles of France there v/as in " Vyen- 
nois" a rich baron and lord of the land named Godefroy d'Alen- 
fon. He had an only daughter Vienna, named in honor 
of the country wherein she was born. At the same time 
there lived in Vienne a rich vassal of the Dauphin whose only 
son, Paris, was the flower of knighthood. The young knight soon 
came greatly to love the daughter of his lord, but out of considera- 
tion for the difference in their station, he cherished his passion in 
silence, only allowing himself the pleasure of singing beneath her 
window at night. The Dauphin, anxious to learn who these mys- 
terious minstrels were, stationed ten armed men in his garden to 
apprehend them, but Paris and his friend Edward used their 
swords so bravely that they escaped unknown. Vienna thought 
much upon the matter, but the mystery remained as deep as ever. 

The Dauphin proclaimed a tournament in honor of his daughter, 
and as the fame of her beauty was known in many lands, num- 
erous great noblemen and illustrious knights assembled to take 
part in the contest. When the jousts were about to begin, two 
strange knights, clothed in white armour, and without arms or 
other insignia upon their shields, rode into the lists, and, after 
hours of terrific combat, emerged completely victorious. With 

^* Terrebasse, in the introduction to his edition of the romance (1835). Cf. Roman- 
ische Forschungen, XV, 321. 



THE EARLY ROMANTIC DRAMA OF THE COURT 65 

much courtly ceremony, Paris received the prize of the tourna- 
ment — a crystal shield and a garland of roses — from the fair hands 
of Vienna herself, and the two friends departed as mysteriously 
as they had come. 

The guests dispersed, and on their way homeward, they raised 
a heated discussion as to whether any lady in the world was more 
beautiful than Vienna, the dispute waxing hot between the par- 
tisans of Vienna, those of Constance, sister to the King of England, 
and those of Florienne, daughter of the Duke of Normandie. At 
the invitation of the King of France, it was determined that all 
should meet at a certain time in the city of Paris to decide the 
question by force of arms. Here again Paris, still in disguise, and 
accompanied by his faithful friend Edward, won the decision for 
his lady Vienna. 

The burden of fruitless love has by this time worked a great 
change in this energetic young knight, and much to the chagrin of 
his father, who, Hke everybody else, is in ignorance of his recent 
splendid performances, he seems to languish and lose interest in 
knightly deeds of arms. Vienna fortunately learns the identity of 
the mysterious knight who has given such magnificent proof of 
his devotion, by finding in the private chapel of Paris, the white 
armour, the crystal shield and the garland which he has won for 
her, and she readily transfers to him all the love that has been grow- 
ing in her heart for the heroic but mysterious cham.pion. En- 
couraged by this, Paris prevails upon his father to intercede 
with the Dauphin for permission to wed her, but that royal gentle- 
man is thrown into transports of rage at the proposal that his only 
daughter and successor should marry the son of his vassal. 

The unhappy lovers determine to elope, but, halted by swollen 
streams, they are overtaken. Paris escapes, but Vienna is brought 
back and placed in a dark and gloomy prison by her irate father, 
who informs her that she v/ill regain her liberty only by marrying 
according to his wishes. He urges the Duke of Burgundy as a 
suitable husband, and even goes so far as to bring him to the court 
for the wedding ceremonies; "but it availed h>Tn nothing all that 
he dyd, for the wylle of her was more in Parys than in any other 
man of the world." 

Paris, in the meantime, had sought to forget his woes in a 
journey to the Holy Sephulcre at Jerusalem, where "he sette all 
his courage in devocj^on, and bycam so devoute that it was mar- 



66 ROMANTIC DRAMA AT THE ENGLISH COURT 

vaylle." From thence he passed "to the lands of prester John, 
where he dwelled a longe tyme." Learning the language of the 
Moors, he went into Egypt and came to the court of the Sultan, 
whose friendship and confidence he gained by restoring to health 
that monarch's favorite falcon, which had fallen sick. So, adop- 
ting the language, dress, and habits of the Moors, Paris decided 
to pass the remainder of his Hfe in that country. 

The King of France, having secured the consent of the pope 
to conduct a Crusade against the Saracens, sent the Dauphin in 
advance to reconnoitre. The Dauphin and his party . were be- 
trayed by certain of their Christian enemies, however, and fell 
into the hands of the Sultan, who imprisoned them at Alexandria. 
Paris, on hearing the news, at once saw his opportunity. Through 
his friendship with the Sultan he secured access to the prisoners; 
and after gaining from the Dauphin, who believed him to be a 
native Saracen, the promise of granting any request he might 
make in exchange for liberty, he aided him to escape, and together 
they set out for France. There they found Vienna still languish- 
ing in prison, but the time of deliverance was at hand. The aston- 
ished Dauphin was chagrined to learn that he owed his liberty 
to his hated vassal; but his word had been given. The long deferred 
marriage took place at once; and after the death of the Dauphin, 
Paris ruled in his stead. 

Such is the substance out of which was constructed probably 
the first purely romantic play ever presented at the English court. 
Richard Edward's Damon and Pythias, which was performed be- 
fore the Queen by the children of the Chapel during Christmas, 
1564-5, though it treats the romantic theme of ideal friendship 
between men, with its devotion and self-sacrifice, and is completely 
free from didactic intent, is nevertheless a pseudo-classical tragi- 
comedy with heavy importations from vernacular farce. It has 
been conjectured that the "Tragedy of the King of Scottes," 
performed at court sometime between July 14, 1567 and March 
3, 1567-8, may have been based upon a romantic story "such as 
that of Juan de Flores's History of AureHo and Isabel, daughter 
of the King of Scots,"" but even if the conjecture be credited, 

" Cf. Feuillerat, Documents, p. 119 and note. There is also a possibility that 
it was based upon older romantic material, such as the story of the intrigue between 
Meliadus and the Queen of- Scots, told in chaps. 65-105 of the romance of Meliadus of 
Lennoy. 



THE EARLY ROMANTIC DRAMA OF THE COURT 67 

the appearance among the properties of a 'Xastell of Prosper! tie" 
would indicate a morality element. So far as we are able to judge, 
however, there was in the play of Paris and Vienna nothing which 
was inharmonious with a serious and dignified treatment of the 
theme of romantic love. It is interesting to observe, too, what 
features were given emphasis by means of properties and stage- 
setting. There was evidently an attempt at verisimihtude in 
the spectacular tournament scene "where Paris won the crystal 
shield for Vienna," as is proved by the expense incurred in pro- 
viding hobby-horses, armour, ''targetts, weapons, garlands, cro- 
netts, and all the furniture for the challengers and defenders. "^^ 

Sometime during the Christmas season of 1572-3 there was 
performed at court by an unknown company a play drawn from 
Hehodorus's Greek romance of Theagenes and Charidea. The 
actual performance is not recorded in the accounts of the Office of 
the Revels, but under the head of " Propertymaker and parcells" 
there are entries for, 

"An awltier for theagines . . . iij ' iij "* 
ij spears for the play of Cariclea . . . xvi''."" 
The date at which Hehodorus was first translated into EngHsh 
is in doubt. It appears that Underdowne's translation was first 
printed in 1577, several years after the performance of the play; 
and in the edition of 1587 Underdowne speaks in the preface of 
having undertaken the translation "not long ago." But the 
Stationers' Register shows an entry in 1569 Hcensing Francis Col- 
docke to print "the ende of the X'*" boke of HeUodorus Ethiopean 
historye."-^ So there seems, after all, to have been an EngHsh 
edition early enough for the use of the dramatist. The romance was 
well known in Europe, however, having been first published in 
Latin at Basel, in 1534, and translated into French by Amyot, in 
1547.29 

2« Cf. Above, pp. 62-3. 

^' Feuillerat, Documents, p. 175. 

2« 5. R. ed. Arber, I, 388. 

29 Cf. S. L. Wolff, The Greek Romances in Elizabethan Fiction, p. 237. The subject 
of Theagenes and Chariclea was probably the foundation for the play called The Queen 
of Ethiopia, which Northbrooke {Treatise, p. viii) mentions as having been acted at 
Bristol in 1578, and it is certainly the theme of the extant play by John Gough entitled 
A Strange Discovery, printed 1640. 



68 ROMANTIC DRAMA AT THE ENGLISH COURT 

It is difficult to conceive how the long-winded narratives of 
Greek romance, with their burden of episode, digression, and 
irrelevancy, could have been successfully adopted to dramatic 
presentation. It would seem that the wildest of the romances of 
chivalry would be preferable in comparison. The flight of a pair 
of lovers and the changes of fortune that befall them — shipwreck, 
adventures with pirates and robbers, separation, and final reunion — 
all this produces a profusion of monotonously similar incident 
through which it would seem impossible that a dramatist could 
find his way without being submerged. The avoidance of epi- 
sode and concentration upon the narrative "high hghts" would of 
course be the only method possible, and even then it is difficult 
to see how the extended narrative sequence could be manipu- 
lated so as to conform to the demands of dramatic structure and 
still remain intelligible to an audience. 

It is probable that in the court play of 1572 dramatic emphasis 
was centered upon the great ensemble scene in the tenth book of 
Heliodorus, where the lovers, after their flight from Delphi and 
the wearsiome chain of adventures that befell them on their tra- 
vels, have fallen into the hands of Hydaspes, father of Chariclea, 
through his victory over Oroondates at Syene. The "awltier" 
mentioned in the account rolls is probably the sacrificial altar 
upon whose heated golden bars the victims, Theagenes and Chari- 
clea, are placed without any mark of injury, since in all their wan- 
derings and in spite of many temptations, they have remained 
chaste and free from carnal stain. The "two spears for the play 
of Cariclea," mentioned in the accounts, were probably intended 
to represent arms in the hands of Hydaspes's exultant soldiers, 
who after the battle pressed about the captives and clamored for 
their immolation.^" The scene had all the elements of sensation- 
alism necessary to recommend it to dramatists of this period; — 
the daughter exposed in infancy and believed to be long dead, 
falHng at last, along with her lover, into the hands of her parents, 
who unknowingly are about to consign both of them to death, the 
thrilling test of chastity to which they are subjected as a pre- 
liminary to their sacrifice, the escape of the sacrificial bull and its 
spectacular capture by Theagenes, the wrestHng match wherein 
he further endears himself to the populace, and finally, in the nick 

'" It is at such puny efforts at realism that Ben Jonson sneers, in the Prologue to 
Every Alan hi his Humour. 



THE EARLY ROMANTIC DRAMA OF THE COURT 69 

of time, the arrival of Charicles, the recognition of Chariclea, and 
the rapid solution of all difficulties. With the nine books of ante- 
cedent action satisfactorily disposed of, the tenth book of Heliodo- 
rus is capable of being served up as tolerable melodrama. 

The records of the Revels office for the period between Feb- 
ruary 12 and February 21, 1576-7 contain an entry for a play called 
''The Irisshe Knyght showen at Whitehall on Shrovemundaie 
at night enacted by the Earle of Warwicke his servauntes. "^i 
Professor Feuillerat suggests''^ that the subject of this play may 
have been drawn from a Spanish romance entitled "Historia del 
Nobile and Valoroso Cavaliero FeUce Magno," in which a char- 
acter called Mariano d' Irlanda figures (chaps. 48-52). In view 
of the fact, however, that this romance had apparently never 
been translated into Enghsh at this time, a safer conjecture seems 
to be that the play had to do with some of the numerous heroic 
exploits of Morhoult of Ireland, a famous character of the Round 
Table. He plays an important part in the romance of Tristram, 
but figures most prominently in the romance of Meliadus, where 
his name appears in the title: "Les nobles faicts d'armes du vail- 
lant Roy MeHadus de Lennoys. Ensemble pleusieurs autres nobles 
proesses de chevalerie faictes par . . . le Morhoult d' Irlande, le 
beau ChevaHer sus paour, Galehoult le Brun, Segurades, Galaad, 
que autres bons chevaHers estans au temps du dit roy Mehadus."^^ 
He is commonly called Morhoult of Ireland throughout the romance. 
That part of his career which would perhaps offer most opportu- 
nities to a dramatist is his treacherous imprisonment by Trarsin, 
on the grounds of an alleged love intrigue between Morhoult and 
the wife of that knight, which came about in this way: Pharamond, 
King of the Franks, after an incognito visit to the court of Arthur, 
where he is wounded in a tournament, is returning to his native 
land. After sailing for some time down a pleasant stream with 
beautiful scenery lining its banks, he stops at last for rest and 
refreshment beside a sparkling fountain situated in a grove of lofty 
pines. Having recuperated, he sends to Trarsin, lord of the coun- 

'' Feuillerat, Documents, p. 270. 

^U bid. -p. 461. 

5' Meliadus forms part of the Great Romance of Palamedes, and was first printed 
at Paris in 1528 by Galliot du Pre. It was of course well known in England. Cf. Ward, 
Catalogue of Roinances in Dept of MSS. Brit. Miis. I, 364-69. 



70 ROIVL^NTIC DR.A.MA AT THE ENGLISH COURT 

try, and asks that he grant him the courtesy of a trial at arms. 
Trarsin consents, and is overthrown by Pharamond. But he 
immediately encounters Morhoult of Ireland and is defeated by 
him in turn. While the two are exchanging knightly courtesies, a 
maiden arrives, purporting to come from the wife of Trarsin, 
the most beautiful woman in the Kingdom, inviting Morhoult to 
a rendevouz. This is really a ruse on the part of Trarsin, who 
wishes to induce Morhoult to make improper advances to his wife, 
that he may have an excuse for punishing them both. The treach- 
ery is effective, and Morhoult is imprisoned along with the lady 
of Trarsin, who prepares dire punishment for them. Brehus 
sans pitie attempts their rescue, but fails; and conceiving a violent 
hatred for all women because of the injury done Morhoult by the 
perfideous damsel, he strikes dead a lady whom he meets travelling 
with Yvain. Another effort on the part of Brehus results in the 
liberation of Morhoult, who in revenge upon Trarsin carries the 
lady off, but through the influence of Meliadus she is returned to 
her husband. 

The play appearing in the records as "Herpetulus the blew 
Knighte and Perobia, playde by my Lorde Klintons servantes the 
thirde of January, (1573 — 4) being the Sunday after the Newyeares 
daye there (at Whitehall),"^* was in all probabihty a performance 
of the romantic species, though there is nothing upon which to 
base an assumption connecting it with any probable source in 
romantic fiction. Characters with names corresponding to those 
mentioned in the title are not known in any other connection. 
The caption, however, is redolent of folk heroics and fairy lore, 
the dramatization of which George Peele is supposed to have 
satirized in his Old Wives' Tale. The mention of the properties 
employed throws some light upon the probable character of the 
performance from a slightly different angle. We find in the account 
rolls entries reading as follows: 

"One Baskett with iiij Eares to hang Dylligence in in the 
play of perobia. "^^ 

"A Gebbett to hang up diligence."^* 

^* Feuillerat, Documents, p. 193. 
^-'Ibid. p. 199. 
3« Ibid. 200. 



THE EARLY ROMANTIC DRAMA OF THE COURT 71 

"Paste and paper for the dragons head."" 

The last named item is a further indication that the play was 
based upon heroic romance or folk tale, while the the "basket" 
and the "gibbet to hang up Diligence" point strongly to the 
presence among the dramatis personae of a comic character belonging 
to the family of Subtle Shift, in Sir Clyo?non and Sir Clamydes, 
and Common Conditions, in the play which bears his name, — 
double-dealing villains with a variety of aliases, whose cleverness 
is often barely sufficient to extricate them from predicaments of 
their own contriving. 

The records for the period between February 12 and February 
21, 1576-7, contain the entry of a play called "The Historic of the 
Solitarie Knight showen at Whitehall on Shrovesundaie at night 
enacted by the Lord Howards servauntes. "^^ The items refer- 
ring to properties employed are of little value in indicating the 
character of the performance, though the following may be noted as 
having some slight significance. 

"To John Edwyn for the lone of certein Armour with a base 
and Targettes which the Lorde Howardes servantes used in their 
playe of the Solytarie Knight . . . vij^"^^ 

"To John Drawater for money by him disbursed . . for 
two glasse Voyalls for the Lorde Howardes servantes on Shrove- 
sundaie . . . ij '^."''^ 

"For bread which was used in the playe of the Solytarie Knyght 
. . . i ^."^^ 

The assumption that the play was based upon romantic ma- 
terial is perhaps sufficiently justified by its title, though we can 
only speculate as to its probably source. The romances of chiv- 
alry are filled with instances of knights who for one reason or 
another — most often the unresponsiveness of their mistresses — 
abandoned their martial exploits for a time and adopted the life 
of a hermit. It is not improbable, however, that a recent trans- 
lation served as the basis of the play. Dramatists of the period 

" Feuillerat, Documents, p. 203. 
3' Ihid. p. 270. 
39 Ibid. p. 275. 
^'Ihid. p. 275. 
*^ Ibid. p. 276. 



72 ROMANTIC DRAMA AT THE ENGLISH COURT 

were not slow to avail themselves of fresh material, provided it 
was in harmony with current dramatic fashions. A short time 
before the recorded performance there appeared The pretie His- 
tory of Arnalt and Lucinda, translated by Claudius Holyband from 
Marofh's Italian version of a pretended Greek original. It is in 
reality, however, the invention of the Spaniard Don Hernandez 
de San Pedro, and reached Maroffi through a French version 
widely known under the title of "Le Chevalier MelanchoUque. "'^^ 
The tale proved to be popular in England, and passed through four 
editions between 1575 and 1608. In 1639 it was turned into Eng- 
lish verse by Leonard Lawrence, and published under the title "A 
small Treatise betwixt Arnalte and Lucinda, entitled, The evill 
intreated lover, or The melancholy Knight ... in English verse, 
by L. L., a well-wisher to the Muses." 

"The "argument" of Holyband's prose translation reads as 
follows: "A noble Grecian, who riding to doe his businesse, being 
out of his way, came to a solitarie place, where a most valiant knight 
of Thebes named Arnalt, having buylded a dark and sadde Palace, 
... as an Hermite did dwell, in continuall sighs, lamentations, 
and mourning. Of whom he being courteously receaved and 
feasted, was fully informed of all his wofull and pitifull mishappe; 
and instantly prayed, that for the honour of gracious, mercifull, 
and honest women, and the profit of unwarie and too bolde Youth 
he should write it, and make it come foorth into the cleare lighte 
and knowledge of the worlde." The tale that follows is in keep- 
ing with this lugubrious introduction. It recites the dolorous 
woes of a love affair that had its inception in a funeral. While 
the burial rites are being performed for an eminent citizen of 
Thebes, Arnalt sees, and falls desperately in love with, his daughter, 
whose grief, to his view, greatly enhances her beauty. Though she 
remains unresponsive to his addresses, Arnalt hopes finally to win 
her favor. Despair overtakes him, however, when she bestows her 
hand upon his own false friend Yerso, to whom he had confided 
his passion. In the duel which follows Yerso is killed; Lucinda, 
heartbroken, retires to a convent, while Arnalt seeks the seclusion 
of a hermit's cell. 

It is perhaps a work of supererogation to offer an alternative 
conjecture as to the subject of The Solitary Knight, but in view of 

^^ Cf. Collier, Catalogue, I, 456-7; Mary A. Scott, Eliz. Translations from the 
Italian, Pub. Mod. Lang. Assoc, 1896, pp. 456-7; Retrospective Revieiv, vol. IV, pp. 72-76. 



THE EARLY ROMANTIC DRAMA OF THE COURT 73 

the fact that the descendants of Amadis of Gaul were proving 
especially attractive to English dramatists of this period, — as will 
appear by examples to be noted later, — it may not be amiss to 
call attention to a hermit knight of Amadis literature whose exploits 
could have served as the basis of the English court play. The epi- 
sode in question is to be found in the twelfth book of the French 
Amadis,'*^ beginning with chapter 84 and extending through chap- 
ter 95. It does not occur in the Spanish original, which for the 
French twelfth book is Part Two of Florisel de Niquea,-^^ but is 
an independent insertion of the French translator, Aubert de 
Poitiers. 

The incidents of this engrafted narrative are in keeping, however, 
with the absurdity common to all the later books of the Amadis 
cycle, as will be evident from the following brief summary: The 
Prince Agesilan and his bride Diane, in company with several other 
princes and princesses, set sail from the island of Guindaye for 
Constantinople, where their marriage is to be celebrated. Before 
reaching there, however, they encounter a fearful storm. Believ- 
ing that the ship will be lost, Agesilan and Diane entrust them- 
selves to a small boat, and after many narrow escapes from drowning, 
they are cast upon a barren shore, where they fully expected to 
meet death by starvation. 

While they are musing upon their ill fortune, they are astonished 
to see a knight in full armour come sailing through the air, seated 
upon the back of a flying monster. Descending, he picks up the 
unfortunate lovers, and carries them through the air to the Isle 
Verde, which is in the neighborhood; and while they refresh them- 
selves with food and drink, he tells them something of himself. 
His name is Patrifond. He has had the misfortune to kill his own 
father, in a duel, not recognizing him until after the dreadful deed 
had been done. Then, crushed with sorrow and remorse, he turned 
forever from the society of men. Passing from one uninhabited 
island to another, he came at last to the Mountains of the Moon, 
in which the river Nile has its source. There, by a fountain, he 
found a cave, where he remained for some time studying Magic 

«Le douziesme livre d' Amadis de Gaule . . . Traduit d'Espaignol en Francois 
par G. Aubert de Poitiers . . . 1556. 

«Don Florisel de Niquea. Parte tercera de la Coronica del muy excelente 
Principe don Florisel de Niquea. En la qual trata de las grandes hazanas de Ids 
excelentissimos Principes Don Rogel de Grecia, y el segundo Agesilao. Savilla, 1546. 



74 ROMANTIC DRAMA AT THE ENGLISH COURT 

and Astronomy. At last, one day he captured a young animal 
which seemed to him to be the offspring of a griffin and a Hon 
that he had killed as they came to drink at the fountain, and, 
therefore, he christened it Grifaleon. He trained it, accustomed 
it to saddle and bridle, and found, much to his astonishment, that 
it could move through the air with the grace and speed of an eagle. 
It was upon this mount that he first appeared to the awe-struck 
Agesilan. Upon one of his many journeys on Grifaleon, he dis- 
covered the Isle Verde, where he took up his abode in a dark and 
somber valley. Daily, for the purification of his soul, he dressed 
himself in his hermit's apparel, bathed his face and hands in the 
fountain, and kneeling, prayed to God. 

But his unexpected guests bring disruption of this quiet life. 
He no sooner sees Diane than the weakness of the flesh proves 
stronger than all his piety. He loves her, and he is filled with 
despair because he believes her to be already the wife of Agesilan. 
In desperation he determines to turn to practical account the 
magic which he has studied through all his years of loneliness. 
At sunrise, on the morning after their arrival, Agesilan, on waking, 
sees a stag run by the cave in which they have slept, and, think- 
ing to capture it for food, he gives chase. Diane awakes at this 
juncture, and, not seeing her lover, hurries out of the cave to 
seek him. Here she sees a horse with bridle and saddle, all ready 
to be mounted; and beheving that she hears the voice of her lover, 
and that she catches sight of him vanishing through the trees, 
she mounts the horse, and rides hurriedly in that direction. 

Now as might be readily suspected, this is only a ruse on the 
part of Patrifond to separate the two lovers. The stag and the 
horse are not real, but merely the creations of his art. Well pleased 
with the success of his scheme, he follows after the Princess, and, 
overtaking her, protests his affection with uncommon vehemence. 
At a critical moment for his own reputation as a pious anchorite, 
to say nothing of the lady's safety, corsairs bear down upon them 
and carry her away. Patrifond is powerless to recover her; and 
after allowing his feelings to subside, he regards the incident as 
the fortunate intervention of divine Providence. 

Meanwhile Agesilan has given up the pursuit of the stag, and 
returned to the cave. Finding neither Diane nor Patrifond, he 
suspects treachery, and he loses no time in mounting upon Gri- 
faleon, — fortunately left behind by Patrifond, — and setting out 



THE EARLY ROMANTIC DRAMA OF THE COURT 75 

in search of the princess. After many incredible adventures, 
through which it is certainly unnecessary to follow him, he finally 
rescues her, in the Isle Desolee, and together they proceed to Con- 
stantinople. 

One's respect for the suggestion that this episode may have ^vJp^'**^ 
formed the basis of the play called The Solitary Knight is somewhat 
increased by the very strong probability that the next play per- 
formed at court, *'The historic of the Rape of the second Helene, "^ 
showen at Richmond on Twelfdaie at nighte" (1578-9), found its 
source in the same romance, Florisel de Niquca.'^'" In this instance, 
however, the dramatist has chosen to depict the exploits of the 
titular hero himself; that is, he has gone to the first part of the ro- 
mance, the part corresponding to the tenth book of the Amadis 
cycle.*^ Florisel de Niquea is the son of Amadis of Greece and 
the Princess Niquea, six generations removed from his illustrious 
ancestor Amadis of Gaul. While visiting in western Europe, 
he inspires an irresistible love in the heart of a certain French 
princess named Helen, who, as a trouble-maker at least, is com- 
parable to her more famous predecessor and namesake. She fol- 
lows Florisel to the Eastern capital, when he returns, and thus the 
trouble arises. She has not been without admirers at home, to 
one of whom, Lucidor des Vengeances, she has even been betrothed. 
It was not to be expected, therefore, that he would tamely submit 
to being robbed of his lady, even though she preferred the rival 
suitor. Only war can wipe out the disgrace and avenge the wrong. 
The forces of France, Spain, Naples, and Venice, not to mention 
those of eighteen heathen kings, unite in an attack upon the capi- 
tal of the Greeks. It is evident throughout that the author model- 
led his work upon the siege of Troy. Florisel is at first taken some- 
what by surprise. On returning to Constantinople from Apol- 
lonia, he finds that the fair Helen has been seized by his enemies. 
The conflict begins in earnest. As an offset to the gigantic forces 
arrayed against him, Florisel counts among his hosts all the famous 
heroes of the house of Amadis, — the illustrious founder himself, 
Amadis of Gaul, Galaor, Florestan, Esplandian, and so on. Their 
keen courage and martial prowess have been in nowise impaired 

^ Cf. Feuillerat, Documents, p. 286 and note. 

^'' The French version, the avenue by which it doubtless reached England, was 
the translation by Gilles Boileau, — Don Florisel de Niquee qui Jul fits d' Amadis de 
Grece et de la belle Niqiiee. a Paris, 1553. 



76 ROMANTIC DRAMA AT THE ENGLISH COURT 

by their long sleep in the grave. In spite of all this, however, 
the besiegers have the victory at last. But Lucidor des Vengean- 
ces, with fine scorn, abandons his faithless lady to the lover of her 
choice. 

The obvious imitation in all this of the siege of Troy, and the 
application of the specific epithet "second Helen" to the French 
Princess, leave little doubt that it served as a basis for the English 
court play mentioned above. 

There is a very strong probabihty that Spanish romance of 
chivalry also furnished the material for the play called The Knight 
in the Burning Rock, "showen at Whitehall on Shrovetuesdaie 
(1579) at nighte enacted by the Earl of Warwickes servantes, "*^ 
as has been recently shown by M. Joseph de Perrot, writing in the 
Reveu Germanique.^^ This performance seems to have been marV.ed 
by extraordinary elaborateness and scenic splendor. For no other 
play of the period have we such full and suggestive details of 
staging and dramatic accessories. We learn, for instance, that 
the action culminated inside a huge rock, so high that a ladder 
was required to mount it; that in its construction, building material 
sufficient almost for a house was employed, and that the exterior 
was covered completely with holly and ivy. Above the rock was 
a blue canopy representing a cloud, and fitted with a mechanism 
by which it could be raised and lowered, while within it tongues 
of flame, produced, it seems, by burning aqua vita, played about 
the hero, the burning knight, who was seated upon a stool. Such 
stage effects are surprisingly elaborate, considering the early date 
of the play, though masks at the court had for a century or more 
been presented with increasing splendor. The prosaic minutae 
of all this gorgeousness may prove interesting. The most signi- 
ficant items gathered from the account rolls are as follows: 

''Jon Rose seniour for mony by hym disbursed, viz. for Lead 
for the chaire of the burnyng knighte . . . ij^ 

"For certeyne parcells by him bestowed in and About A rock 
at the courte for A plaie enacted by the Earle of Warwickes ser- 
vauntes: viz 

Longe spare poles of furre . . . vj ^ x ^. 
peeces of Elme cutt compasse . . . iiij ^ 

*' Feuillerat, Documents, p. 303. 
" Vol. VII, pp. 421 ff. 



THE EARLY ROMANTIC DRAMA OF THE COURT 77 

"For nayles of sondrey sortes used abowte the Clowde and 
drawing it up and down . . . vj ^ viij ''. John Drawater ... for 
... a hoope and blewe Lynnen cloth to mend the clowde that 
was Borrowed and cut to serve the rocke in the plaie of the burning 
knight . . . X '. 

''Ulryck Netsley for mending a scalling Ladder that served at 
the Rock . . . viij ^. 

"John Davyes ... for Ivie and holly for the Rock for the 
playe enacted by the E. of Warwickes servantes, iiij ^ ii ^. 
"Aquavite to burn in the same Rock . . . iij ^ 
"Rose water to Alay the smell thereof . . . xij **." 

An extract from Le Chevalier du Soleil, covering the episode 
of the Burning Knight, has been published by M. de Perrot in 
Reveu Germanique, as noted above. The original romance is the 
Spanish Espejo de Principes y Cavalleros, written by Diego Or- 
tunez, about 1562. A short while before the performance of the 
play at the English court, the romance had been translated into 
English directly from the Spanish original, with the title, "The 
first part of the Mirrour of Princely Deeds and Knighthood . . . 
newly translated out of Spanish into our vulgar English tongue, 
by M(argaret) T(iler). London, Thomas East, 1579!"^^ "The 
second part of the first book of the Myrrour of Knighthood" 
appeared in 1582. 

The events leading up to the climax of the episode, the rescue 
of the Burning Knight, are recounted by the heroine to le Cheva- 
lier de I'Amour, who later performs the rescue. She tells him how 
her father, a famous magician, and brother of the king of the coun- 
try, whose name is Palidarque, took up his abode within the solemn 
recesses of some lofty mountains; but not wishing his daughter to 
be deprived of the advantages of human companionship and asso- 
ciation, he sends her to the court of his brother, the king. Here 
she meets the young Prince Lucinde, her cousin, who loses no time 
in falling in love with her. Being a very dashing young cavalier, 
who in valor and courtesy surpasses all the knights of the kingdom, 
he finds his wooing entirely agreeable to the lady, and under solemn 
assurance of marriage he works his will with his fair cousin. 

Her father, having now grown old and knowing that he must 
soon die, is anxious to see his daughter cast anchor in the harbor 

" Hazlitt, Handbook, p. 321. 



78 ROMANTIC DRAMA AT THE ENGLISH COURT 

of matronly safety, and returns from his mountain retreat to choose 
for her a husband fitting her rank and station. He soon learns 
the truth, and, seconded by his royal brother, he tries in every 
way to induce the Prince to yield to considerations of honor, and 
right the wrong he has done. But all entreaty is without avail. 
Determined that such unfaithfulness shall receive its just punish- 
ment, her father decides to have recourse to his powers of magic. 
He causes the Prince to be transported to a chamber filled with 
roaring flames, situated in a region so inaccessible that it can be 
reached by only one entrance, and that through a secret and dread- 
ful cavern. Here in the midst of flame, the Prince sits helplessly 
upon a chair while all hope of rescue or relief dies in his soul. His 
suffering is dreadful. His cries chill the blood of all who hear 
them. And the magician upon whom he has brought dishonor 
has decreed that he shall find relief only when there shall arrive 
a knight who, for his valor, is worthy to drink at "la fontaine des 
Sauvages," who is wise enough to find the hidden entrance to the 
chamber, and bold enough to brave its terrors. Furthermore, he 
shall surpass the Prince in valor and shall overthrow him in single 
combat. Having delivered himself of this cheering prophecy, the 
magician dies, and leaves the lady, his daughter, with additional 
sorrow. 

At this point the direct action begins. The lady has remained 
faithful to the Prince in spite of his perfidy, and feels his sufferings 
quite as keenly as he himself feels them. She has related her 
griefs to the Knight of Love in the hope that in him the liberator 
of her beloved Prince has been found. She is not deceived. The 
Knight of Love is deeply impressed with her story, and is of the 
opinion that the unfaithful lover has suffered long enough, and, 
moreover, that he will now prove amenable to reason. Fulfilling 
all the terms of the prophecy, he penetrates through rocky caverns 
until he reaches the cham.ber in v/hich the Prince is imprisoned. A 
fearful fight ensues, each knight using his sword with great vigor, 
and raining blows upon his antagonist. The Knight of Love is 
finally victorious, and seizing the Prince, he drags him to safety. 
Upon reaching firm ground, however, he lays down the only con- 
dition upon which the Prince may escape with his life; namely, 
that he freely confess the truth, and repair the injury he has done 
the lady by making her his wife. The Prince assures him that 
he shall be only too glad to comply with this demand. "Lors le 



THE EARLY RO]\L\NTIC DRAMA OF THE COURT 79 

Chevalier de I'Amour se leva, et luy tendit la main. Lucinde 
et la belle dame . . . s'embrasserent alors de grande amour, 
comme ceux qui s'aymoient parfaitement." 

This completes the list of court plays of the decade 1570-1580 
which appear upon good evidence to have found their material 
in romances of heroic adventure. ^° Of the remaining plays of the 
period whose titles are suggestive of romantic themes, it is of course 
impossible to speak with anything approaching assurance. Several 
however, appear to be of Italian origin. The play called Cloridon and 
Radimante, presented before the Queen by Sir Robert Lane's men 
on Shrove Tuesday, la72,^imay have been founded upon theOrlan- 
do Furioso. In the thirty-second Canto of that work Clodion and 
Bradamente are important characters. There are many instances 
of the distorted spelling of proper names in the records of the Revels 
office. The names as they stand in the title are not met with else- 
where. 

Mediaeval legend perhaps lay at the foundation of the "Lady 
Barbara; showen by Sir Robert Lane's men on Saint Johns dale 
at nighte (157 2). "^^ ji ^^^g probably a secularization of the theme 
upon which a large number of the saint's plays of the Middle Ages 
were based, the story of Madonna Barbara, who suffered martyr- 
dom for her faith. Her fortitude, together^ with the tortures 
through which she passed, had all the romantic elements of wonder 
and awe common to the saints' legends. Creizenach records the 
performance of a play upon the theme in the Low Countries as 
late as 1568.^^ Two surviving plays dealing with the legend are 
described in the Catalogue de la Bibliotheque Dramatique of M. de 

'^ Attention might be called in this connection to the play entitled The Red Knight 
performed at Bristol in 1576 (cf. Northbrook's Treatise, Shak. Soc. Pub. XII, p. x). 
It is quite unsafe to identif}^ the knights of heroic romance on the basis of color, since 
some of them had the faculty of changing their hue as the occasion required. But 
one Red Knight is universally famous. He is the bold character who entered Cai duel 
while Arthur was banquetting there, and bore of the King's cup, "none daring to 
hinder him." Cf. the Romance of Sir Percival. 

*^ Feuillerat, Documents, p. 145. 

^^Ibid. Barbara is the name of the lady in Masuccio's version of the Fifth Evan- 
gel story {The Novelinno, of Masuccio, ed. by Walters, pp. 34-44) but it is difiicult to 
believe that this repulsive tale might have furnished the plot of the play. 

^^ Geschichte des Neuren Dramas, III, 450. 



80 ROMANTIC DRAMA AT THE ENGLISH COURT 

Solienne.^* M. Petit de JuUville^^ analyzes at some length one 
of the two extant French mysteres which treat the legend of Saint 
Barbara. The play is ''en cinq journees," and the dramatis 
personae include one hundred performers. The outline of the 
action is as follows : 

Premiere journee. Dioscorus, king of Nicomedia, whose wife 
is but lately dead, seeks to forget his sorrows by directing the edu- 
cation of his daughter, the Lady Barbara. He employs as his 
aids two wise doctors and philosophers, Alphons and Amphoras. 
They read to the young girl from pagan authors and from Boccac- 
cio, and expound the religion and philosophy of the heathen gods. 
Under this treatment the young lady falls asleep, and while she 
sleeps, the Holy Virgin prays God to enlighten her. The lesson 
is resumed, but this time the girl denies strenuously the existence 
of the pagan gods, and silences the wise doctors. Shortly after, 
the King makes a solemn sacrifice to appease them for such blas- 
phemy, and while this is in progress, Barbara converses with an 
obscure Christian, whose words sow the first seeds of the Chris- 
tian faith in her soul. 

(Seconde journee). Rifflemant, Prince of Persia, becomes 
enamored of Barbara during the sacrificial ceremonies, and demands 
her in marriage. She refuses. As she dwells in a tower which her 
father has caused to be built, to safeguard her from evil influences, 
she receives secretly a Christian sent from Alexandria by Origenes, 
bishop of that place. Lucifer inspires Dioscorus with the idea of 
persecuting the Christians. He begins with an attack upon Alex- 
andria, but is repulsed with loss by the Christians led by Origenes. 

(Troisieme journee). John the Baptist comes in person to 
baptize Barbara. Dioscorus returns, burning with fury against the 
Christains. The girl unfortunately chooses this moment to avow 
her faith. The king tries to pierce her with his sword, but she 
miraculously escapes, — is pursued, caught, and put in prison. 
Dioscorus delivers her to the brutal provost, Marcian, who is very 
cruel. 

" I, 106-7. 

" Les Mysteres, Paris, 1880, T. II, pp. 478-86. This mystere is in manuscript 
only. A "Vie de Sainte Barbc, en deux journees," was printed at Rouen by Jehan 
Jehannot about 1520. It is much shorter than the former, and provides for only 
thirty-eight actors. Cf. Les Mysteres, T. II, pp. 486-88. 



THE EARLY ROMANTIC DRAMA OF THE COURT 81 

(Quatrieme journee). The torture of Barbara continues. She 
sings praises to God while her tormentors exhaust themselves with 
beating her. Among other punishments, she is condemned to 
be led naked through the streets of the city, but just as the journey 
is about to begin, an angel descends and envelops her in a robe. 
The jailers flee in terror, and report the matter to Dioscorus. 

(Cinquieme journee). The king devises new and more terri- 
ble punishments; but all proving unavaiHng, he drags his daughter 
by the hair to the top of a mountain, and prepares to execute her 
with his own hands. As the blow descends, he is struck dead by 
a thunder-bolt from heaven. His soul is carried away by demons, 
while that of his daughter is conducted by angels to Paradise. 
Then follows a scene in the infernal regions. The devils welcome 
Dioscorus with scoffs and jests as they dance about him in derision. 

The plays for the year 1574 present a tangle which tempts one 
to interesting even though profitless speculation. Under the head 
of "Peruzing and Reforming of playes," in the records covering 
the period between November 1, 1574 and February 15, 1575 
there appears the item: ''The expences and charges wheare my 
Lord Chamberlain's players did show the history of Phedrastus 
and Phigon and Lucia together amounteth unto . . . ix ' iiij '^."^^ 
How many plays were performed, one, two, or three? Collier 
sees in the entry two plays: "The history of Phedrastus" and 
"Phigon and Lucia."" Fleay is of the opinion that three plays 
were performed.^^ Professor Feuillerat, in commenting upon the 
entry, says: "It seems to me that this may just as well be the 
title of one single play, for the meaning of the sentence is, not 
that two or three plays were shown together, but that "the charges 
and expenses together amounteth to," a phrase often met with in 
the accounts, and synonymous with 'in all amounteth to.' "^^ 
The confusion is further increased by the entry for the year pre- 
ceding, of a play called "Predor and Lucia, played by "Thcrle 
of Leceisters servants upon Saint Stevens daye at nighte at white- 
hall aforesaide. "60 Feuillerat 's suggestion that Phedrastus, Phi- 

'* Feuillerat, Documents, p. 238. 
" Hist. Dram. Lit., I, 226. 
^' Biographical Chronicle, II, 290. 
"' Feuillerat, Documents, p. 459. 
«» Ibid. p. 193. 



82 ROMANTIC DEAMA AT THE ENGLISH COURT 

gon, and Lucia refer to a single play seems, however, to be probable. 
The clerk is indicating the play simply by naming the prominent 
characters. But whether the other entries refer to this same play, 
is difficult to decide. It hardly seems likely that the play of Lucia 
presented before the Queen in 1573 would have been subjected 
to "peruzing and reforming" with a view to a second presenta- 
tion in 1574. The following is offered as a possible explanation 
of the difficulty: The Lucia of 1573 is another secularized saints' 
legend, as was the Lady Barbara of the year before. Lucia was a 
martyr of the primitive church in Syracuse, who perished during 
the persecutions of the Christians by Diocletian. Her story was 
frequently presented by the religious drama of the fifteenth and 
early sixteenth centuries.''^ She rejected the pagan suitor that had 
been chosen for her, was denounced as a Christian, condemned to 
pass a certain time as a public prostitute, and then be put to death. 
She escaped a part, at least, of this punishment by dying in prison. 
There is nothing improbable in the suggestion that these themes 
were utilized for secular presentation at this time. They had, in 
fact, much to recommend them. Their sensational incidents not 
only would appeal to the dull sense of wonder and awe, but their 
burden of cruelty and horror would prove tempting to tastes 
which we know to have been especially prevalent among the 
Elizabethans There is plenty of evidence, moreover, that in a 
secularized form they continued to be popular both in fiction and 
in the drama. The legend of Dorothea, identical in its leading 
incidents with that of Lucia, was the subject of an early play by 
Dekker, which was refashioned by Massinger in 1622 as The Vir- 
gin Martyr. Fleay identifies both of these with the old Admiral's 
play of Diocletian, performed in 1594, which he says was itself an 
old play revived.®^ Fair Constance of Rome, for which Henslowe 
"paid on behalf of the Admiral's men" five pounds to Dekker, 
in 1600,*'^ was evidently the "persecuted wife" story which in its 
several versions was popular on the mediaeval religious stage. 
The entries in Henslowe's Diary, April, 1599, for money paid to 
Chettle "for his booke of Plasidas" have been pronounced by 
Greg to be forgeries.^* But we know that the legend of Placidas 

" Petit de Julleville, Les Mysteres, II, 631, also II, 181 ff. 

^■^ Chronicle, I, 121 ff. 

" Henslowe's Diary, Ed. by Greg, I, p. 214. 

^' Ibid. 1.61. 



THE EARLY ROMANTIC DRAMA OF THE COURT 83 

was widely current in England during the sixteenth century. It 
was the subject of a play of the interlude t>T3e, written presumably 
by Nicholas Udall and presented in 1534 at Braintree, during 
Udall's vicarage there.^^ In 1566 appeared John Partridge's 
"Worthie Hystorie of the most Noble and Valiant Knight Pla- 
sidas," which is reprinted by CoUier in his Illustrations of Old 
English Poetry.^^ The story forms chapter ex. of the Gesta Roman- 
orum, and is found also in Caxton's Golden Legend. It is perhaps 
better known under its mediaeval title of St. Eustace. 

Now the other names associated with Lucia in the entries of 
1574, Phedrastus, Phigon, and Predor, are not suggestive of the 
saints' legend. They savor rather of Italian comedy. A Plau- 
tine comedy entitled Lticia was written by an ItaUan schoolmaster 
named Giralamo Fondali, about 1547, according to Creizenach," 
and acted repeatedly in Italy about that time. The play has since 
perished, however, only a few Knes of the prologue having survived. 
It is possible that the Phedrastus-Phigon-Lucia play of 1574 
was founded upon this or upon some adaptation of it— brought by 
the Italian players who are known to have been in England at this 
period; for in the accounts of the Revels from March to November, 
1573, we find items covering the expenses "For the Progresse to 
Reading, etc. And Lykewyze for the Ayrings, Repairings, Trans- 
latings, preparing, fyttings, furnishing, Garnishing, Attending, and 
setting foorth of sundry kyndes of Apparell, propertys, and furny- 
ture for the Italyan players that followed the progress and made 
pastyme first at Wynsor and after at Reading. "«« 

The Philemon and Phelicia given by the Earl of Leicester's 
men before the Queen on Shrove Monday, 1574,6^ was probably 
romantic, though no specific sources for it can be conjectured on 
the basis of the names which occur in the title. 

"The hystorie of the Colly er showen at Hampton Court on the 
Sunday following St. Johns Day" (1576),^° by the Earl of Lei- 
cester's men, was perhaps, as Feuillerat suggests, a presentation of 

"5 Chambers, Med. Stage, II, 192-3. 

««Cf. also Collier, Bibliographical Account, II, 117. 

" Geschichte des neueren Dramas, II, 79. 

^* Feuillerat, Documents, p. 225. 

" Ibid. 

■"> Ibid. p. 256. 



84 ROMANTIC DRAMA AT THE ENGLISH COURT 

Grim the Collier, a favorite character with the early English dra- 
matists. The play in question may have been a re-presentation 
of Ulpian Fulwell's Like Will to Like, which was printed in 1568. 
The story of Grim furnishes an episode in Richard Edwards' Damon 
and Pythias, of 1564. The extant Grim the Collier is held by 
Fleay/^ who is followed by Dr. Ward,^^ to be the Devil and His 
Dame mentioned in Henslowe's Diary, and said to have been pub- 
lished in 1600. But no edition of so early a date is extant, and as 
Farmer quite correctly observes,''^ the surviving play bears marks 
of unrestricted adaptation at the hands of some Restoration dra- 
matist. 

The story of Grim is to be called romantic only in origin. Like 
Griselda, it had long been popularized. The original of it appears 
to be the fourth novel of Giovanni Brevio, which in outHne is as 
follows: All the souls who came to hell complained that they had 
been brought there by their wives. After a council in hell, it is 
decided to send the demon Belphegor to earth, have him choose a 
wife, live with her ten years, and then report in hell as to the bene- 
fits and burdens of matrimony. Ten years' experience as the 
husband of a shrew is enough to convince Belphegor that previous 
reports reaching hell have not been exaggerated.^* 

"The charges and expences wheare my Lord of Leicester's 
men showed their m.atter of Panecia"^^ may be a trace left upon 
the records of the Revels office by a pre-Shakespearean play upon 
the story of Much Ado. We have some evidence to support the 
theory that such a play once existed. The old German play by 
Jacob Ayrer, Die Schone Phoenicia''^ and Much Ado trace their 
plot material ultimately to the same source, Bandello 1.22. But 
both plays have details in common which are not found in Ban- 
dello, thus lending support to the theory that they had a common 
source in some older English play." The Italian novel, a version 
of which is to be found in Belleforest's Histoires Tragiques, occurs 

^1 Chronicle, I, 273. 
" Eng. Dram. Lit. I, 263. 

''^ Five Anonymous Plays, London, 1908; pp. 315 ff. 
^^Cf. Dunlop, History of Fiction, II, 100-103. 
" Feuillerat, Documents, p. 238. 

" Printed in part by Cohen, Shakespeare in Germany, pp. 76 G. 
" For a discussion of this question, see Cohen, pp. Ixxi ff. and Wodick, Jacob 
Ayrcrs Dramen, Halle, 1912, pp. 48 ff. 



THE EARLY ROMANTIC DRAMA OF THE COURT 85 

also in Orlando Furioso, book v, which was translated into English 
by Beverly in 1562. According to Harrington, whose own trans- 
lation of Ariosto was made in 1591, this particular story had been 
told in verse by Turberville many years earlier. 

"A pastorell or historie of A Greek maide, shewen at Richmond 
on the sondaie next after Newe yeares dale, (1579) enacted by 
the Earl of Leicester's servants, "^^ ^lay have been a pure 
pastoral, or it may possible have been founded upon the Greek 
pastoral romance of Longus, Daphnis and ChUe, a translation of 
which had been made by Amyot in 1559. 

"The Duke of Millan and the Marquis of Mantua" was the 
title of a play presented before the Queen sometime during Christ- 
mas, 1579." The title is redolent of Italian novelle, though no 
story is known from which the play may have come. There is in 
Lyly's Euphues a reference to an intrigue between the Duchess of 
Milan and the Marquis of Mantua, which may have some connec- 
tion with the play, but the passage is too vague to be in any way 
illuminating. 

"The historie of Titus and Gisippus, showen at Whitehall on 
Shrovetuysdaye at night, (1579) enacted by the Children of Pow- 
les''^" was doubtless a dramatic rendition of the tale of romantic 
friendship bearing that title, which Boccaccio has told in the De- 
cameron, tenth day, novel eight. The story was known in England 
under its ItaUan title even before its incorporation into The Govenor 
by Sir Thomas Elyot.^^ It was translated directly from Boccaccio 
into English verse by Edward Lowicke in 1562. The mediaeval 
story of Athis et Prophilias, which Boccaccio combined with a 
tale from Petrus Alphonsus, is believed to have been founded upon 
a lost Greek original. ^^ 

This completes the Ust of lost plays drawn apparently from 
romantic sources, which were presented at court between 1570 and 
1580. After the last-named date the fashion in romantic comedy 
seems to have changed somewhat, the dramatized heroic romance 

'* Feuillerat, Documents, p. 286. 

" Ihid. p. 320. 

^'> Ibid. p. 270. 

«' Bk. II, Chap. 12. 

^''Cf. Wolff, Greek Romances, p. 137. Voretzsch, AUfranzosische Lileralur 
p. 379. "Titus and Gisippus" is the subject of a French drama by Hardy, entitled 
"Gesippe, ou Les Deux Amis." 



86 ROMANTIC DRAMA AT THE ENGLISH COURT 

and novella being superseded by the mythological-pastoral type 
of play introduced by Lyly and Peele, and the freer handling of 
romantic material as seen in the plays of Greene. The Felix and 
Felismena episode of Montemayor's Diana was the subject of a 
play presented before the Queen at Greenwich on Sunday after 
New Year's, 1585.*^ After this, the form of dramatic activity 
which we have been considering seems to have been abandoned for 
a while. 

We have in these ten years a body of romantic drama that is 
certainly not insignificant in amount, whatever may have been its 
artistic quality. Its literary and dramatic merits we have small 
means of judging, since the plays themselves have almost all 
perished. But probably English literature has not suffered greatly 
in their disappearance. The period of development which the 
artistic drama was then passing through, together with the essen- 
tially undramatic character of much of the material put upon the 
stage, leads one to suspect that these plays represented, for the 
most part, crude and formless work. This conclusion is strength- 
ened, too, by the reflection which we obtain of them in the 
criticism of the time. It is not unbiased criticism, to be sure. 
Much of it is simply an expression of the bitter hostility of early 
Puritanism toward the stage as the enemy of religion and morality. 
Other critical attacks come from men who are completely sub- 
servient to classical standards, and are therefore keenly intolerant 
of the exuberance and artistic aggressiveness of this youthful 
romantic drama. But with liberal allowance for classical pre- 
judice and rehgious hostihty, this criticism, together with such 
other information as is obtainable, leaves us with the distinct 
impression that the most significant aspect of this body of drama- 
tic literature was its promise for the future. 

" Feuillerat, Documents, p. 365. 



CHAPTER IV. 

Early Surviving Romantic Plays 

The first period in the history of the Elizabethan court drama, 
which we may conveniently think of as ending about 1580 with the 
appearance of Lyly and Peele, is one of prime importance histori- 
cally, though its actual contribution to the existing body of drama- 
tic literature is comparatively slight. Not much of its vigorous 
productivity has escaped oblivion. Of the fifty or more plays 
mentioned in the records of the Revels Ofiice between 1568 and 
1580, there is a possibiHty that two or three have reached posterity 
in the shape of subsequent revisions or adaptations. All the rest 
doubtless perished with the rapid destruction of the rough manu- 
scripts which served the purpose of the actors. The life history 
of most of them perhaps extended no further than a brief reign 
of favor upon the popular stage, from which, after censorship and 
revision by the Master of the Revels, they were chosen for pre- 
sentation before the Queen. 

Nor did they, when no longer available for the stage, succeed 
to the dignity of publication. We examine the Stationers' Register 
and the printers' lists in vain for a trace of a single one of the 
numerous romantic plays d'scussed in the preceding chapter. The 
consistency with which they were denied the honors of the press 
may be explained in var'ous ways. It may have been due to their 
lack of literary merit; one would be slow to call in question any 
ajSirmation touchmg their crudity and want of art. It may have 
been that frequent presentation upon the stage had so familiarized 
their plots — their ch'ef source of interest — and thus narrowed 
the circle of possible purchasers, as to make their publication an 
unsafe venture for the practical pubUsher. The most effective 
reason perhaps was one aUied to, though not identical with, the 
last named consideration. As we have seen, the plots of these 
plays were drawn in almost every instance from some current 
romance, the dramatist usually taking advantage of a recent 
translation in order to avail himself of the natural interest attach- 
ing to novelty of incident and situation. The printed play would 
therefore not only have had to compete for popular favor with its 
original source, but would have had the additional handicap of its 



1 



88 ROMANTIC DRAMA AT THE ENGLISH COURT 

own recent vogue upon the stage; and the latter was not yet, as 
it came later to be in the case of the mature literary drama, an 
advertising medium of more or less practical utility. In the case 
of the early dramas which exploited the older romantic and ballad 
heroes, the bombastic declamation of acting characters could be 
expected to offset somewhat the lack of novelty in subject-matter; 
but even this slender advantage would be in a large measure absent 
from the printed play. In view of these various considerations 
which must have operated in deterring publishers, it is hardly 
surprising that an account of the rise of Elizabethan dramatic 
literature must concern itself at this period with a large body of 
"lost" romantic drama. 

We are fortunate, however, in not being absolutely without 
means of judging the character of the romantic drama during this 
s/ period of its development. Two plays have reached us from the 
decade 1570-80, which, in type of subject-matter as well as in 
general dramatic method, we may safely assume to be fairly repre- 
sentative of the age and the species to which they belong. It might 
be argued that their survival in the midst of such wholesale 
destruction s evidence of some superiority in literary or dramatic 
quality which keeps them from being wholly t3rpical ; and such in fact 
may have been the case. We can not pass critical judgment, 
either absolute or relative, upon those plays which arc no longer 
in existence. The argument is not conclusive, however. It is 
quite probable that these survivals escaped the common fate not 
because they were less crude in style and dramatic technique than 
their contemporaries, but because the material out of which their 
plots were constructed was not drawn from some popular current rom- 
ance against which the printed play would have had to compete in its 
bid for pubHc favor. As will be shown below, the two surviving 
plays might justly lay claim to the distinction of novelty in plot inter- 
est and general romantic situation. Their plots were not the invention 
of their author (or authors^, it is true, but they were not readily 
accessible in narrative form, as was the case with almost all of the 
non-extant romantic pla;;^* discussed in the preceding chapter. 
The two plays in question are the Pleasant Comedy of Common 
Conditions, and the purely heroic Sir Clyomon and Sir Clamydes; 
and whether we regard them as typical or not, there can be little 
question that they were called into existence by the same demands, 

' The probability of a common authorship will be discussed below. 



EARLY SURVIVING ROMANTIC PLAYS 89 

were animated by the same spirit, and controlled by the same 
tastes, as were the large number of romantic plays that passed 
into the limbo of forgotten things when their brief stage career 
was ended. They constitute, then, almost our sole means of measur- 
ing the degree of development which the romantic drama had attained 
by the beginning of the last quarter of the sixteenth century; they 
possess, on that account, an interest entirely incommensurate with 
their absolute worth as dramatic literature, and deserve a more 
respectful consideration at the hands of scholars and critics than 
has usually been accorded them. 

Common Conditions 
"An excellent and pleasant Comedie, termed after the name 
of the Vice, Common Conditions, drawn out of the most famous 
historic of Galiarbus Duke of Arabia, and of the good and eyill 
sucesse of him and his two children, Sedmond his sun, and Clarisia 
his daughter: Set foorth with delectable mirth, and pleasant 
shewes," is the formal caption of the earhest survival from the^ first 
period in the history of the Elizabethan romantic drama.'- It 
was entered in the register of the Stationers' Company to John 
Hunter, July 26, 1576, and this entry constitutes the sole trace 
left by it upon any contemporary record. Of the circumstances 
of its production upon the stage we know nothing whatever. Its 
"mirth and pleasant shewes" may have been represented for the 
delectation of popular audiences only, or it may have been one of 
the many unnamed court plays the performance of which has left 
indefinite traces in the records of the Revels' Office for the period. 
Mr. Brooke suggests indeed that the uncertainty in which^ the 
audience is left at the close of the play may be due to the excision 
of objectionable matter by the Master of the Revels. At any 
rate, there is reason for thinking that the play had been in existence 
several years before the entry of it for publication in 1576. Evi- 
dences based upon versification, structure, and the employment 
of older dramatic conventions point to a date of composition 
not much later than 1570. 

2 A perfect copy, adding nearly five hundred lines to the form in which the play 
had formerly been known, was brought to light not long ago in the library of Lord 
Mostyn, Mostyn Hall, Wales. Tliis is now in the Library of the Elizabethan Club 
of Yale University; and from it an exceUent edition of the play has recently (1915) 
been prepared by Professor Tucker Brooke {Elizabethan Club Reprints, Number One), 
to whose Introduction and notes I am variously indebted. 



90 ROMANTIC DRAMA AT THE ENGLISH COURT 

Its author is likewise unknown. Fleay assigns it to the author 
of Aphis and Virginia, who is generally supposed to have been 
Richard Bower, and to the same hand he ascribes the anonymous 
^■^V Clyomon and Sir Clamydes, to be noted later. A common 
authorship for the two plays seems, on the whole, fairly probable, 
whether they be attributed to the author of Apius and Virginia, 
or to some other dramatist of the period. Substantial argument 
might be advanced to support the suggestion of Professor Kittredge 
that the presence of the "Cambyses" vein points to Thomes 
Preston as the author. A further consideration of the matter 
will be taken up in connection with the study of Clyomon and 
Clamydes.^ 

But whoever the unknown poet may be, he has shaken off the 
trammels of the morality, and stands frankly forth as an artist, 
in purpose if not in fact. Certain morahty conventions are re- 
tained, it is true, in the persons of the vice, Common Conditions, 
and the three wandering tinkers bearing the names of abstractions, 
but these are given an essential function to perform in the develop- 
ment of the romantic plot, and are not allowed, as in the case of 
similar characters in Cambyses and Damon and Pithias, to work 
havoc with the mood of the story. 

Moreover, we find in this play what may be termed the first 
independent and untrammeled expression of the romantic spirit 
in English drama, if we may venture to speak with this degree of 
assurance about a matter that is enveloped in so much uncer- 
tainty. In Calisto and Melihea the romantic element failed to 
free itself from the didactic. The faint tinges of romanticism 
discernible in Thersites and Misogonus are hardly deserving of 
the name, while the romantic emergence in Damon and Pithias 
is virtually smothered beneath the load of native farce and pseudo- 
classicism. But in Common Conditions its mastery is supreme. 
The theme of the play is the caprice of fortune in the affairs of 
lovers, the obstacles that stand in the way of the fulfillment of 
their desires, and the vicissitudes which they experience in trying 
to overcome these obstacles. Sentiment and adventure, then, — 
the universal themes of romance — are interwoven to form its plot, 
and no underlying didactic purpose interferes with their free expres- 
sion. 

» See below, pp. 108-9 



EARLY SURVIVING ROMANTIC PLAYS 91 

The combination of circumstances out of which the plot is 
constructed may be outlined as follows: Through the intrigues 
of Common Conditions, a double-dealing parasite at the Arabian 
Court, Galiarbus, a noble duke of Arabia, has fallen under the 
suspicion of the King, and is about to be sent into exile. Summon- 
ing his son and his daughter, Sedm.ond and Clarisia, he takes a 
sorrowful farewell of them, and proceeds into Phrygia, lea^dng 
his possessions behind. Immediately upon the departure of Galiar- 
bus, Conditions approaches Sedmond and Clarisia, and falsely 
informs them that King Arbaccus, because of the enmity which he 
bears their father, is preparing dreadful punishment for them. He 
advises them to flee without delay, and obligingly offers to accom- 
pany them as their servant. So the three set out at once in the 
hope of finding Galiarbus. But as they are travelhng stealthily 
through a dense forest, in order to escape the more easily, they are 
set upon and robbed by three rascally tinkers. Shift, Drift, and 
Unthrift. Sedmond rather unheroically flees at the attack of the 
robbers, the lady is bound to a tree by them, and Conditions escapes 
hanging at their hands only by promising that he will inflict this 
punishment upon himself. When he has ascended the tree, how- 
ever, with the rope securely in his own hands, he refuses to carry 
out his agreement; and the robbers, disgusted at such unfaithfulness, 
and fearing that his derisive hoots will bring someone to the rescue, 
make a hurried departure. Sedmond escapes, and, proceeding 
into Phrygia, takes the name of Nomides, the better to elude the 
King, and becomes a "wandering Knight. " Clarisia, accompanied 
by Conditions, continues her search for her father. If fortune 
frowns upon the children, however, she has at last begun to smile 
upon the sire . GaHarbus reaches Phrygia in safety, prospers , and soon 
becomes a rich and powerful lord. As a precaution against further 
molestation by the King of Arabia, however, he changes his name. 
The author stupidly neglects to tell us what name he now assumes, 
but it is clearly evident that Galiarbus and the Leostines of the 
later part of the play are one and the same. So we may safely 
conclude that the assumed name was Leostines. Otherwise we 
have the extremely awkward procedure of dropping Galiarbus 
before the play is one-fourth finished, and never mentioning him 
thereafter. 

But to return to the fortunes of Clarisia. Upon entering 
Phrygia, she is met by Lamphedon, son of the Prince of that coun- 



92 ROMANTIC DRAMA AT THE ENGLISH COURT 

try, who is hunting in the forest, and the inevitable love-affair 
ensues, terminated promptly by marriage. Conditions, however, 
in sheer perversity of spirit, breeds domestic discord by stirring up 
jealousy between Clarisia and the Princess, mother of Lamphedon. 
In loyalty to his wife, but filled with sorrow over leaving his native 
land, Lamphedon sets out by sea with Clarisia, to take up residence 
at the court of the King of Thrace, who is a kinsman of Clarisia. 
Conditions once more proves himself an efficient maker of mis- 
chief, however. In negotiating for passage to Thrace, he has made 
the acquaintance of a band of pirates, and at their invitation has 
become their captain. So when the ship bearing Lamphedon and 
Clarisia is upon the high seas, he attacks it with his pirate crew. 
Lamphedon is thrown overboard. Clarisia is taken into captivity 
and turned over by common agreement to Conditions, who is to sell 
her for a vast sum to Cardolus, a tyrant, and owner of the Isle of 
Marofus. Instead, however, he repents of his rascality, and secures 
shelter for her at the home of Leostines, a wealthy knight (Galiarbus, 
her father, evidently, who of course does not recognize her), where 
she continues to dwell under the name of Metrea. Lamphedon, in 
the meantime, having saved himself from drowning, learns of the 
scheme to sell Clarisia to Cardolus, and, proceeding to the tyrant's 
castle, overthrows him and frees a large number of ladies who are 
being held in captivity, only to find that Clarisia is not among them. 
The drama turns at this point to consider the fortunes of Sed- 
mond, who under the name of Nomides, has been living in another 
part of Phrygia. Sabia, daughter of a wealthy Spanish physician, 
has fallen violently in love with Nomides, in whom, however, her 
declarations awake no response. Angered at his coldness, she prays 
that he may know the pangs of unrequited love ; and her prayers are 
soon answered, for journeying to the city where Leostines lives, he 
meets his sister, now known as Metrea, and unmindful of her true 
identity, falls violently in love with her. But Metrea (Clarisia), 
passionately fait' ful to the memory of Lamphedon, whom she 
believes to have been drowned, will listen to no profession of love. 
Her benefactor, Leostines, points out to her the advantages which 
matrimony offers a defenceless maiden, and proposes to find a hus- 
band suited to the station which she will enjoy as the inheritor of all 
his possessions, but she begs to be allowed to live as a maid. She 
of course says nothing about her supposedly dead husband, Lamphe- 
don. 



EARLY SURVIVING ROMANTIC PLAYS 93 

At this point Lamphedon again appears upon the scene, having 
been conducted to Clarisia by Conditions, who for once allows him- 
self to become the instrument of beneficent fortune. But he soon 
returns to his favorite role of mischief-maker. The affectionate 
meeting of Lamphedon and Clarisia, witnessed by Conditions and a 
female fool named Lomia, is reported to Leostines, who takes it as 
evidence of wantonness on the part of his ward, and the unfortunate 
pair are condemned to drink poison. For some reason they do not 
make known the true relations existing between them. Conditions, 
who knows the truth, does what he can to confirm the suspicions of 
Leostines. The poison is provided, and Lamphedon drinks off the 
portion assigned him. Clarisia is also on the point of swallowing the 
fatal draught, when she is commanded by Leostines to stay her hand, 
since he has decided to spare her life. Apparently divining the 
terms upon which she is to be saved, she replies that he has come too 
late to have her as his wife. Here the play breaks off suddenly, 
leaving matters in this uncertain state, the reason assigned in the 
Epilogue being lack of time to proceed further. 

In considering the elements that enter into this plot, we note, 
first, a setting sufficiently vague and remote to fulfill all the demands 
of high romance; second, a personnel drawn mainly from the 
highest circles, — kings, princes, dukes, and other members of the 
courtly group; and, third, the recurrence of a type of motive and 
situation thoroughly characteristic of a group of romances widely 
current in both the east and the west, of which the story of Placidas, 
or the legend of St. Eustace, is probably the best known repre- 
sentative;^ — a family dispersed into widely separated localities 
and suffering various vicissitudes of fortune in the search for each 
other, a wife parted from her husband by a catastrophe experienced 
during a voyage at sea, attacks by pirates and robbers, the varied 
romantic complications that arise when the scattered members 
of the family meet after a long period of time without recognizing 
each other, and finally the happy solution of all difficulties and the 

*The generic name given to the group is that of the "Man tried by Fate." A 
study of the interrelations of its numerous members, so thorough and so admirable 
in method that it might serve as a model for all future work of the sort, is that by 
Gordon Hall Gerould, "Forerunners, Congeners, and Derivatives of the Eustace 
Legend," Pub. Mod. Lang. Ass., 1904 (N. S. 12), pp. 335-446. Other studies in the 
same field are, Philip Ogden, A Comparative Study of the Poem Guillaumj d' Angleierrc" 
(1900), and L=o Jordan, Die Eiistacelege'iie, etc.. Herrig's Archiu f. d. it. Sprjch^:i, 
Bd. 121, ss. 341-368. 



94 ROMANTIC DRAMA AT THE ENGLISH COURT 

ample reward for all suffering. Common Conditions and Sir Clyo- 
mon and Sir Clamydes are frequently spoken of together as sur- 
viving representations of the dramatized heroic romances. But 
this is not strictly true. The bonds of affinity which unite Common 
Conditions with the typical romance of chivalry are its atmosphere 
of blustering sensationalism, and the presence among its dramatis 
personae of a ''wandering Kjiight" — who, after all, hardly qualifies 
for the distinction — and the tyrant Cardolus, who imprisons fair 
ladies in his castle on the Isle of Marofus. The other incidents 
out of which its plot is constructed belong to a distinctly different 
genre. The geography of the story, moreover, lies outside the 
realm usually traversed by the knight of mediaeval legend in his 
search for adventure, and the local color, what there is of it, is 
sufficient to give the story a distinct Oriental tinge. 

From the point of view of the matter that enters into its com- 
position, then, the play appears to be a sort of mongrel, possessing 
no strictly defined affiliation. We are told that the story was 
"drawn out of the most famous historic of GaHarbus." Are 
we to accept this statement in good faith? To what extent has 
the author modified the material appropriated from this source? 
We can only answer this question of course after " the most famous 
historic of Galiarbus" has been brought to light, and it has so far 
eluded the vigilance of the industrious source-hunter. There 
is convincing evidence in abundance, however, that the author 
did not transfer to the stage without material alteration a narra- 
tive already in existence. The union of the heroic element with 
situations foreign to the romance of chivalry has already been 
noted. Then the uncertainty of the dramatist, as if he longed 
to take the initiative, yet did not dare to trust himself to a timid 
invention, is variously evident. First, there is the failure to say 
specifically, what he evidently meant his auditors to understand, 
that Leostines is GaHarbus under an assumed name. Second, he 
seems to be uncertain whether to represent the relations between 
Leostines and Metrea as those of disinterested philanthropy, or 
romantic love. In the list of players' names Leostines is described 
as a " Knight that loves the Lady Metrea, " yet he nowhere expresses 
a feeling stronger than mere fatherly affection. He specifically 
declares that he wishes to regard her as his "only daughter deare," 
(1. 1590) and begs her to accept him as her sire (1. 1598), unselfishly 
offering to provide her with a husband, "some knight of famous 



EARLY SURVIVING ROMANTIC PLAYS 95 

stocke," to share the wealth with which he means to endow her.^ 
Wholly inconsistent with this attitude is the intimation of romantic 
passion in the closing lines of the play. When Metrea is about 
to drink the poison, Leostines commands: 

"O stay thy hand, my Metrea deare, and I will save thy life." 
And Metrea's reply is, 

" In faith sir knight you come too late to gaine her as your wife. " 
As far as the reader is aware, the descriptive tag applied to Leostines 
in the list of dramatis personae is the only implication that he ever 
entertained such designs. The ambiguity seems clearly to indicate 
that the author is improvising upon an original only imperfectly 
remembered, or at least not strictly adhered to. ^ ^ 

Further evidence pointing to the same conclusion is found in 
the indefinite and unsatisfactory manner in which the play is 
brought to a close. Nothing whatever is settled. The story of 
the Spanish physician and the amorous daughter for whom he 
proposes to purchase a husband is dropped in mid-action, and 
never resumed again. The final disposition of the main plot is 
hardly more satisfactory. A catastrophe seems to be imminent 
when the Epilogue steps forward with his lame excuse for breaking 
off the action, but somehow— perhaps by the prevailingly comic 
mood of the play— the reader is left with the impression that a 
way will yet be found to avert the impending tragedy. 

These anomalies and uncertainties show pretty conclusively 
that the author did not find the various elements of his plot already 
in combination in narrative form. He has evidently treated 
with considerable freedom the original which he designates as "the 
famous historic of Galiarbus." The necessity of modifying his 
borrowed matter doubtless arose out of the effort to adapt it to 
the composite and dramatically important role played by the titular 
character. Obviously, he is the dramatist's own creation,^ and has 
no connection with the original romantic source, except in so far 
as he typifies the vagaries of fortune in human affairs. He domi- 
nates the action from first to last. The direction of the plot is 
surrendered completely to him, and it might almost be said that 
for him the play was written. Hence the necessity of ordering 
events with an eye single to his functional importance. 
6 Cf. 11. 1584 ff. 



96 ROMANTIC DRAMA AT THE ENGLISH COURT 

We need hardly expect, therefore, to find a source corresponding 
in every detail with the plot of the drama. But can we locate the 
narrative that probably served as the support of the author in 
the not altogether satisfactory exercise of his maiden invention? 
There is much discernment back of the suggestion offered by the 
reviewer of Professor Brandl's edition of the play in the Jahrhuch 
der deulschen Shakespeare Gesellschaft,^ who says, "Der Stoff scheint 
in letzter Linie auf griechische Romane zuriickzugehen, eine 
italienische Novelle diirfte dabei die Vermittlerolle gespielt haben." 
There is, in fact, no mistaking the flavor of Greek romance in the 
type of motive and incident out of which the plot of Common Con- 
ditions is fashioned. As for the Italian novella that may have 
served as the immediate means of its communication to the drama, 
I am unable to offer one for which the claim can be indisputably 
made. In the eighth novel of the fifth day of Giraldi Cinthio's 
Ecatommiti, however, we have, if not the original of the English 
dramatist's adaptations, an analogue which must undoubtedly 
go back to the same parent stem. The headnote of Giraldi's 
story reads: "Messer Cesare Gravina, fearing the anger of his King, 
flees from Naples with his two twin children, a son and a daughter. 
They are caught in a tempest, the husband and the wife are thrown 
into the sea, the two children remaining on the ship, the parents 
and the children both believing the others to be dead. In the 
end all of them meet again in a prosperous condition, and are again 
received into the favor of their King, and return contented to 
Naples."^ This story thus outlined may be given in summary 
as follows: 

Untruthful reports spread by his enemies had caused Gravina, 
an upright and loyal citizen of Naples, to fall under the suspicion 
of the King, Alphonso; and fearing that the King meant 
to have him put to death, Gravina determined to make his way 
secretly out of the country. So having provided a ship, he col- 
lected a few of his possessions, and taking his family, which con- 

* Quoted by Brooke, ed. Com. Cond. (Eliz. Club Reprints) p. 59. 

' Messer Cesare Gravina timendo I'ira del suo re, con un figliual maschio ed una 
femmina, nati ad un parto, si fugge da Napoli. Sono assoliti dolla tempesta; cade il 
marito e la moglic ncl mare; i figliuioli riraangono nella nave; e ciascuno di essitien 
che I'altro sia morto. Si ritronono tutti in buona fortuna; e riavanta la grazia del re 
lore, se ne ritornano contenti a Napoli." Cf. Gio Battista Giraldi, Gli Ecatommiti, 
Cugini Pomba E Comp. Torina, 1853, pp. 253-264. 



EARLY SURVIVING ROMANTIC PLAYS 97 

sisted of liis wife (Elisabetta) and the twins, Gaio and Hiulia, he 
set sail at night, directing the vessel toward Ragugia. 

When they were upon the high seas, a storm came up unex- 
pectedly, and the ship was threatened with destruction by the 
wind and the waves. The terrified sailors threw overboard the 
better part of the cargo, and at last lowered the life-boats, deter- 
mined to leave the vessel to its fate. But in the excitement Elisa- 
betta fell into the water. Gravina plunged in in an effort to save 
her, leaving the boy and the girl still on the ship. The sea was so 
disturbed that Gravina lost sight of his wife, and beHeving her 
to have been drowned, he grasped a table which he found floating 
on the water, and was at last carried by the force of the waves to 
Durasso, where, more dead than alive, he moaned the loss of his 
family, all of whom he believed to be drowned. But all had in 
fact been saved. Elisabetta had managed to seize some part of 
the floating cargo, and had been borne by the waves to Velona, 
where, ashamed of her fortune and wishing to conceal her identity, 
she gave it out that her name was Macaria. The ship on which 
the boy and girl had been left did not sink after all, but, drifting 
uncontrolled, it finally stuck in the sand off Ragugia. Two gentle- 
men, seeing it, came out to investigate, and finding the children 
almost dead of exposure and hunger, they carried them ashore 
and cared for them. The children, being too young to tell any- 
thing of their family and not knowing even their own names, were 
rechristened and given into kindly hands. The boy, now called 
Eugenio, was given to a gentleman of Velona, and carried by him 
to that city. The girl, under the name of Eufrosina, remained 
with a family of Ragugia. 

Now as to the fortunes of each member of this scattered family 
during the ensuing years. Gravina, though grieving for the loss 
of his wife and children, gives thanks for his own miraculous deliv- 
erance. Proceeding to Patrosso, he hears that King Alphonso 
has set a price on his head and in order to conceal his identity, 
assumes the name of Nastagio. He associates himself with a 
gentleman of that place, and, making a law of necessity, lives 
his Hfe in patience. Finally, the gentleman with whom he is 
associated dies, and Nastagio becomes "Sir" Nastagio, a person 
of dignity and consequence in the community. 

As for his wife, under the name of Macaria, she remains in 
Velona, and takes service in the household of the gentleman into 



98 ROMANTIC DRAMA AT THE ENGLISH COURT 

whose hands Gaio (Eugenio) had fallen. Impressed with her 
quiet demeanor and virtuous behavior, this gentleman offers to make 
her his wife, and raise her above the rank of a servant. She thanks 
him, but refuses, preferring to remain true to the memory of her 
supposedly dead husband. The gentleman honors her all the more 
for her refusal. He asks her, however, to take charge of the 
bringing-up of Eugenio, which she agrees to do, without having 
the slightest suspicion, of course, that he is her own son. 

Eufrosina is stolen by corsairs from her friends in Ragugia, 
and on being brought to Patrossa, is purchased by Nastagio for 
forty florins. She does not wish to make known the name which 
she has formerly borne, and is now called Eutiche. She has grown to be 
a very beautiful young woman, and her loveliness is enough to warm 
the heart of any man. Nastagio purchases her as a servant, but 
he soon comes to treat her as his own daughter, (which she really 
is, though of course neither suspects it). There is just a suggestion 
that Nastagio regards her with a feeHng slightly warmer than 
paternal affection, but his true nobility of character is always 
uppermost in their relations. 

While these events are happening in the life of his lost twin 
sister, Eugenio has himself been acquiring experience in worldly 
matters. Having grown to young manhood, he begins to take 
an interest in the girls about him. A certain Pino, wealthy citizen 
of Patrosso comes to Velona, bringmg with him his beautiful 
daughter. Eugenio sees and falls in love with her, though being 
but a foundling, he says nothing of his passion. 

When she has returned with her father to Patrossa, however, 
he determines to follow her; so, putting on female attire, the better 
to elude his Velonese master, as well as to aid him in carrying out 
certain other designs which he has conceived, he proceeds to Patros- 
sa, and is employed in the family of Pino as companion and maid 
of the latter's daughter. In this way he comes to live on terms of 
intimacy with the object of his affections. 

It happens, however, that the Pino residence adjoins the residence 
of Nastagio, and Eugenio sees in the course of his stay there the 
beautiful Eutiche, his sister. All his love for the daughter of 
Pino is now transferred to Eutiche. Quitting the service of Pino, 
he is employed in a similar capacity by Nastagio. All his intrigues 
come to nothing in this quarter, however. Eutiche is not only 
pure and virtuous, but she is very much in love with the son of the 
mayor. 



EARLY SURVIVING ROMANTIC PLAYS 99 

This love-affair between Eutiche and the mayor's son produces 
further complications, and leads finally to a reunion of the Gravina 
family. In order to overcome the objections of both Nastagio 
and the mayor, these lovers decide to elope ; and as an aid in carrying 
out their plan, Eutiche puts on male attire. In this garb she is 
seen by the Velonese master of Eugenio, who is abroad hunting 
for that young man, and, being mistaken for Eugenio, is locked 
up in prison. The usual confusion of identity between the brother 
and the sister follows,^ producing further mystification and com- 
phcations, and in the curiosity thus aroused the true relations 
between these people are brought to light, and the family is united, 
the two pairs of lovers being in the end made happy in marriage. 

The difference in atmosphere, in geography, and in the names 
given the characters helps decidedly to obscure the similarity in 
incident and situation between this story and the story constituting 
the plot of Common Conditions. At some points, it is true, they 
differ rather sharply, but the number of essentially identical 
characteristics which they have in common makes it difficult to 
believe that the resemblance is accidental. In comparing the one 
with the other, we may omit all consideration of the cryptic and 
indefinite ending of the play. This is obviously of the dramatist's 
own contriving — a bungling effort at invention which apparently 
he was unable to control, and which proves nothing whatever as 
to source relations. Fundamental, and perhaps organic, differences 
are seen in the fact that the play has no character corresponding 
to Elisabetta, wife of Gravina, and that it makes no use of the dis- 
guises employed in the story. Detailed comparison, however, 
shows the following important points of argument : 

1. Both are evidently intended to be concrete illustrations of 
the same thesis: the strange tricks which destiny plays in the lives 
of human beings. 

* The assuming of the disguises and the confusion of identity between the brother 
and the sister reproduce the conventional situation in the analogues of Twelfth Night, 
but these need no further consideration here, as they have nothing else in common 
with the Gravina narrative. A much closer analogue of Cintio's story is the account 
of similar adventures happening to the family of Capece (Decameron 2. 6.) which 
Greene took over for his tale in "Perimedes, the Black-Smith" (Works, ed. Grosart, 
Vol. VII, p. 23 ff.), but that too may be omitted in the present connection, since all 
points of difference between Boccaccio and Cintio carry us still further from the plot 
of Common CondUions. 



100 ROMANTIC DRAMA AT THE ENGLISH COURT 

2. They are identical in fundamental motives and general 
frame work. False accusations of treacherous enemies cause a 
prominent citizen's loyalty to his king to be questioned. Fearing for 
his safety he and his family flee the country. They are separated, 
assume aliases, meet without recognizing each other, and after 
many adventures, are at last united (that is, they would have 
been if the play had been allowed to follow the course -clearly 
determined for it by the logic of romantic comedy). 

3. In each the exiled citizen prospers in his new home, and 
regains his wealth and social station. 

4. In each, the citizen's supposedly lost daughter is delivered 
into his hands after having been captured by pirates. Without 
recognizing her, he takes her into his home, but soon comes to 
regard her as his daughter. 

5. The lost son and brother appears at this jucture, and, unmind- 
ful of the identity of either the father or the sister, makes violent 
love to the sister; in each case, he is rebuffed. 

6. In each a wife separated from her husband by shipwreck 
or attack by pirates, finds a haven with a man of noble chara::;er, 
who proposes to marry her (or see her married). She refuses, 
perferring to remain true to the memory of her lost husband, and 
her benefactor regards her all the more highly for the refusal. 

7. In each a subordinate love story exists. The brother, in 
order to press his suit with the unrecognized sister, deliberately 
rejects a lady who has given proof of her love for him. 

8. In the story, the brother, in order to gain access to the sister, 
puts on female attire This is not true of the play, but it looks 
as if the dramatist might have had such a precedent before him. 
On meeting the lady Metrea's female fool, Lomia, through whom 
he hopes to gain his ends, Nomides inquires, — 

"How sayst thou, my Lady Lomia, wilt thou change cotes 
with me?" 

She replies, — 

"No thinke not you have a foole in hand I waraunt yee." 

Whereupon Nomides rejoins — 

"Why Lomia, my cloke will become thee excellent and brave,"* 
etc. 

s Cf. !'. 1405 ff. 



EARLY SURVIVING ROMANTIC PLAYS 101 

Whether or not we regard these indisputably close points of 
correspondence as sufficient to justify the assertion that the English 
dramatist knew and used the Italian novella, it can hardly be 
denied that the two stories belong generically to the same saga- 
group. It may be that he used an original — presumably Greek, 
certainly Eastern — of which the novella is an offshoot. The 
names and the geography lend support to such a theory; but if 
such an original ever existed under the title of the "Historie of 
Galiarbus," it is not now traceable. There is nothing improbable, 
however, in the theory that the play was fashioned directly from 
the novella. Common Conditions belongs to a period, it will be 
remembered, before the dramatized novella came into fashion. 
The dramatic staple in the decade 1570-80 was the romance of 
chivalry, and the romanticized classical legend. Under the influence 
of current fashions, therefore, the dramatist may have infused his 
matter with the sHghtly inharmonious heroic strains noted above,^° 
and, being aware of its hybrid character, transferred it to the 
vaguely romantic environment of Arabia and Phrygia. The 
author of Clyomon and Clamydes took a similar Hberty with both 
the names and the geography of his borrowed material. "The 
most famous historic of Galiarbus" mentioned in the title may 
have been only an effort to recommend the play to the reading 
public by attributing to it a romantic and high-sounding origin. 
If the "history of Galiarbus" had been current in England at the 
time, perhaps the play, which in that case could have pretended 
to no novelty of plot-incident, would never have been printed at 
all.i^ The discovery of such a story, however, may prove these 
conjectures to have been ill-founded. 

The German reviewer quoted above wisely remarks that the 
flavor of Greek romance is strong in the plot material of Common 
Conditions. The indebtedness of the Italian novelists to late 
Greek prose fiction has long been recognized by scholars. Landau, 
in Die Quellen des Dekameron, says: "Eine andere Art griechischer, 
ebenfalls nicht antik classischer Werke, scheint auch einigen 
Einfluss auf manche Novellen des Dekameron gehabt zu haben. 
Es sind dies die griechischen Leibesromane, die zwar Boccaccio 
wohl nicht selbst gelesen hat, von denen er aber einige Kenntis 
gehabt zu haben scheint. Diese Romane, die grosstentheils zur 

'» Cf. p. 94. 

" It might be added that the Gravina stoiy had not been translated into English. 



102 ROMANTIC DRA]VL\ AT THE ENGLISH COURT 

Zeit der byzantininschen Kaiser geschrieben wurden, tragen das 
Geprage ihrer Zeit, die Spuren einer abgelebten Civilisation und 
eines krankhaften Gesellschaftszustandes. Raiiber, Entfiihrungen, 
Scheintodte, die grossten Unwahrscheinlichkeiten und die uner- 
wartetsten Gllicksveranderungen bilden den Hauptinhalt dieser 
Romane, mit denen Boccaccio's Novellen von den drei Schwestern 
und ihren Liebhabern (I. IV. N. 3), von Pietro Borramozza (T. V. 
N. 3), und von der Familie Capice^^ (I. II. N. 6) verwandt sind. "^^ 
The characteristics which seem to indicate an affinity in materials 
and methods between Common Conditions and the Greek romances 
may be listed as follows: 

1. The general frame-work, involving the flight of lovers or 
kindred from some threatened peril, the ocean voyage, the ensuing 
adventures, the separation, and final reunion; — the conventional 
outline of the Greek romances; cf. the flight of Dercyllis and Man- 
tinia from Tyre, in The Incredible Things in Thule; the flight of 
Rhodanes and Sinonis from Babylon, in the Babylonica; the secret 
departure of Charicles from Delphi, carrying with him the lovers, 
Theagenes and Chariclea, in JEthiopica; the flight of the lovers 
in the effort to escape parental anger, in the Clitophon and Leucippe, 
and the similar wanderings and adventures of the lovers as decreed 
by the oracle of Apollo, in the romance of Habrocomas and Anthia.^* 

2. The use of attacks by pirates and robbers as the favorite 
means of producing the complications of the action. It is universal 
in Greek romance. Observe its monotonous occurrence in Theagenes 
and Chariclea: (1) When the lovers are fleeting from Delphi, 
under the protection of Charicles, they are seized by Trachinus, 
a pirate (V, xx-xxvi). (2) After their escape, while Chariclea is 
attending the wound which Theagenes received in the fight with 
Pelorus, they are taken by a band of robbers (I, i-iii). (3) Presently 
Thyamis, with his "Herdsmen," takes them from their first cap- 
tors (I, xix; VII, ii). (4) Cneman is captured by pirates (VI, ii), 
and later by the "Herdsmen," commanded by Thyamis (VI, ii). 

(5) Thyamis is himself captured by a robber band (I, xxvii-xxx). 

(6) Thisbe is captured by Thermutis, outlaw-lieutenant of Thyamis 
(V, xiv). (7) A party of scouts capture Theagenes and Chariclea, 

1'^ The last named story, to which Landau assigns a Greek, origin, is the nearest 
traceable analogue to Cintio's story of the Gravina family. 
" Loc. cit. P. 296. 
" Cf. Villemain, CollecUon de romans grecs; Chassung, Les Romans gress. 



EARLY SURVIVING ROMANTIC PLAYS 103 

and deliver them into the hands of Hydaspes (VIII, xvi-xvii). 
The other romances employ the device almost as freely. The 
subordinate action in Clitophon and Leucippe hnds its motive in 
the abduction of Calligone by pirates (Book II, xiii-xix). Cal- 
listhenes, the lover, arranges the abduction through Zeno, a sturdy 
rogue who in many respects resembles Common Conditions, and, 
like Conditions, pretends that he was once a pirate himeslf. In 
Hahrocomas mid Anthia, Anthia is separated from her husband 
and carried off by bandits, from whom she is rescued by a nobleman 
named Perilaus, who wishes to marry her. (II, ii). She consents 
in order to avoid offending him, but, remembering her husband, 
she escapes this second marriage by drinking a soporific. She is 
pronounced dead, and placed in the tomb (III, 6). Pirates plunder 
the tomb for the treasure which it contains, and rescue her (III, 
8). The list of instances in which shipwrecks and attacks by 
pirates are employed as a complicating force could be greatly 
extended. Its constant use by the writers of the Greek romances 
is probably due to the fact that they seemed not to understand how 
the movement of their plots could be effected through character 
and the influences of natural causation, but surrendered them to 
some mechanical agency. 

3. In Common Conditions, Nomides speaks scornfully of love, 
and defies its power over him. Being untouched by any arrow 
from the little god's bow, he can ruthlessly turn from the pleadings 
of the amorous Sabia.^'^ But when he sees Metrea, he laments 
that he has ever spoken "defame" of love, and confesses that 
instead of being love's master, he has now become his slave. ^^ 
This is a typical instance of "Das Eros Motif" which Brunhiiber 
attributes to the influence of Greek fiction. ^^ Nomides's experience 
is paralleled by that of Clitophon before he met Leucippe, and by 
Theagenes when he met his destiny in Chariclea (II, xxxiii), 

4. The closing scene in Common Conditions, in which, without 
knowing it, a father condemns to death his own daughter and the 
man whom she loves, occurs in its essential details in the tenth 
book of the ^Ethiopica, when Hydaspes condemns Theagenes and 
Chariclea to the sacrifice. In each instance the seemingly natural 
disclosure of the true relations between the lovers is not made. 

15 Cf. U. 786-885. 

« Cf. 1351-88. 

"Sir Philip Sidney's "Arcadia" und ihre Nachlaufer, pp. 22-3. 



104 ROMANTIC DRAMA AT THE ENGLISH COURT 

In Heliodorus the impending tragedy is averted by the timely 
arrival of a deus ex machina; in Common Conditions the reader is 
left in uncertainty as to the final outcome. 

It will be noted that most of these characteristics which show 
the kinship in matter and spirit between Common Conditions and 
the Greek romances are to be found also in the Cintio story of 
Gravina. But whether the Italian novella was the intermediate 
form in which they reached the English dramatist, or whether, 
through some romance not now known, he was in more direct 
contact with Byzantine fiction, can not be determined with cer- 
tainty. It is fairly clear, however, that the play was not written 
in strict fidelity to any narrative original. The writer's willingness 
to experiment with his borrowed plot is evident at several points, 
particularly in the unsatisfactory denouement. The tricks of 
fortune with the family of Cesare Gravina, then, may not improb- 
ably have suggested the "good and evil successes" of the GaHarbus 
household. 

The author of Common Conditions would have been credited 
with more perfect control over the technical factors of the dramatic 
art if a complete copy of his play had never been found. As 
long as it was known only in the mutilated form reprinted by 
Brandl and Fanner, his apparent inability to bring it to a definite 
and satisfying conclusion could not be urged against him. For 
this, however, the author, as Mr. Brooke suggests, may not have 
been responsible. Otherwise, the play is fully up to the level of 
what we should expect when we consider its early date. The writer 
did not profit by what his predecessors had taught him, of the advan- 
tage to be gained by the formal division of his material into acts 
and scenes; however, he exercises over it a fair degree of control. 
The complications are effected almost entirely through the agency 
of the Vice, "Conditions," whose machinations are without motive, 
as they are without consistency. This, however, is explained 
by the fact that he is not only performing the traditional functions 
of the Vice, but is also typifying somewhat allegorically the vagaries 
of fortune in human affairs. The engrafting of the comic features 
upon the romantic plot is also done rather successfully. "Con- 
ditions" is easily the most entertaining character of his class to 
be found in any play of the period. The greatest artistic weakness 
of the play is the use of the lumbering septenarius as the verse- 
form, though anything better could hardly have been expected of 



EARLY SURVIVING ROMANTIC PLAYS 105 

a dramatic poet of the seventies who is so largely committed to 
tradition as is the author of Common Conditions. 

Sir Clyomon and Sir Clamydes 

The proportion of dramatized romances of chivalry among the 
court performances during the first period in the history of EUza- 
bethan drama has already been noted. The absence of contem- 
porary records for the popular stage at this time makes it impossible 
to speak with certainty as to its character, though the frequency 
with which such plays were presented at court is probably but a 
reflection of their popularity with the pubhc. Their vogue is 
well-nigh fruitless, however, as far as permanent additions to 
dramatic literature are concerned. The whole class is today 
represented by a single example, which bears the characteristic 
title, "The Historic of the two valiant Knights, Syr Clyomon 
Knight of the Golden Shield sonne to the King of Denmark: And 
Clamydes the wiiite Knight, sonne to the King of Suavia." 

The exact date of the play can not be determined. No trace 
of it appears in the Stationers' Register, and the earliest extant 
printed copy bears the date of 1599. Every indication points to 
a date of composition very much earlier than this, however. In 
the first place, the title-page describes the play as having been 
" sundry times acted by her Majesties Players. " This alone would 
preclude a date later than 1591, for this company appeared at 
Court only once after that year, namely, on January 6, 1594. 
Fleay lists Sir Clyomon and Sir Clamydes among the plays acted 
at Court between 1587 and 1594.i« But even in that case it must 
have been enjoying the privileges of rejuvenated old age. It is 
difficult to read its sprawling, redundant septenarii without feeling 
that to assign it a date of composition not much later than the 
mid-seventies is to mthhold from its author a charity to which 
he seems justly entitled. 

However, the crudij^s of language and versification are rather 
less obvious than those of Common Conditions, with which Sir 
Clyomon has so many characteristics in common. It would there- 
fore be difficult, it seems, to defend Dr. Greg's tentative suggestion 
that Sir Clyomon is the earlier of the two.^^ Though e\idences 
of versification and meter are never wholly convincmg, in this 

i« History of the London Stage, 89; Chronicle of the English Drama, II, 296. 
i» Sir Clyomon ajid Sir Clamydes, Malone Society Reprint, Introd. p. vi. 



106 ROMANTIC DRAMA AT THE ENGLISH COURT 

case they point strongly to the opposite conclusion ; and the rapidly 
changing metrical fashions of the period to which the two plays 
belong give to chronological arguments based upon them more 
than usual stabihty. 

An examination of the dramatic meters in use during the period 
shows that they were prevailingly of two kinds: the long doggerel 
line, consisting of an indefinite number of syllables, yielding to no 
uniform system of scansion, but following in the main an anapaestic 
pattern, and the seven-foot iambic line, or septenarius, written 
with more or less regard for regularity and uniformity. Besides 
these, short " Skeltonics, " consisting of three accents, are some- 
times met with, and various lyrical measures occur in impassioned 
soliloquies,^" but because of their relative infrequency, these may 
be left out of account. The first of these measures, viz., the 
doggerel, rhyming usually in couplets, but sometimes alternately, 
was the standard for the drama up to 1560. About that date 
such non-dramatic work as Tottel's Miscellany began to exercise a 
decided influence for regularity. At this time, too, the uniform 
seven-foot iambic couplet, though not a novelty, was given wide cur- 
rency through its use by Phaer in his translations of Virgil, and by Jas- 
per Heywood and the other translators of Seneca.-^ These influences 
began to show themselves in the drama almost immediately. The 
versification in Gammer Gurton's Needle (1559-60) exhibits a dis- 
tinct iambic basis, with some approach toward regularity in the 
length of line. Much the same is true of Damon and Pithias 
(1564) and Pacient Grissill (1565). There is also a growing tendency 
in these plays to confine the doggerel to the humorous and less 
dignified characters, and with Apius and Virginia (1567-8), Hores- 
tes (1567) and Cambyses (1569-70), the custom of developing the 
serious parts of the plots in couplets of fairly regular septenarii 
had become pretty well estabhshed. • The old tumbHng measures 
were not wholly displaced, however, even in serious passages, 
and their use by low and comic characters became a tradition which 
lasted until well-nigh the end of the century. 

Common Conditions and Sir Clyomon and Sir Clamydes both 
follow the metrical fashions that had come to prevail by 1570; 
that is, their serious and dignified characters almost invariably 
employ the seven-foot iambic couplet, while their comic clown 

2" See, for example, Clyomon and Clamydes, 11. 990-1006. 
' =' Cf. Bond, Early Plays from the Italian, Introductory Essay, p. Ixxxii ff. 



EARLY SURVIVING ROMANTIC PLAYS 107 

scenes are developed in couplets composed of the hobbling, irregular 
doggerel. Yet the quality of the versification in the two plays is 
not the same. In Common Conditions strict adherence to the stan- 
dard fourteener is far less marked, the tendency to break away 
from it being quite noticeable in those passages which consist of a 
rapid interchange of speech among characters. Moreover, the 
Une often moves with a freedom and a disregard for metrical pre- 
cision which obscure the iambic pattern of the verse and make its 
scansion uncertain. IMuch the same crudities of language and the 
same uncouth expedients adopted to meet the demands of rhyme 
and meter are observable in both plays, though a slightly greater 
degree of sophistication may perhaps be claimed for Sir Clyomon 
and Sir Clamydes. At any rate, one gets the impression that 
there was some consistency of motive behind the linguistic and 
syntactical atrocities of the last-named play. The writer seems 
to have been ready to move heaven and earth in the effort to secure 
the necessary uniformity and balance of his line, and in carrying 
out his purpose he has forced the language into open rebeUion 
against all the laws of grammar. Almost any contortion of phrase 
or absurdity in diction is admitted if it makes for regularity in 
the construction of the seven-foot couplet. Awkward expletives 
and various roundabout and redundant expressions are employed 
for this purpose, and words are made to assume strange and un- 
grammatical forms for the sake of rhyme and meter. It is not often 
that exigencies of the dialogue are allowed to interfere with his 
cherished design, but when an incomplete line is admitted, care 
is usually taken to have the succeeding line fill up the measure 
according to rule. And in his singleness of purpose, the writer 
has succeeded admirably. Most of his couplets are so rigidly 
symmetrical that one feels they would remain stable if stood on 
end, but they approximate very nearly to the well-defined t3^e. 
The iambic meter, too, re-enforced often by alliteration and always 
supported by a strongly marked caesura, falls with a metallic 
click which leaves one no choice but to observe. The effect of 
the whole is mechanical, of course, and highly monotonous, but it 
indicates that the writer felt himself to be at least under certain 
metrical obHgations. 

The Middle-English ballad measure, then, made rigidly iambic 
in movement, and written in the form of a couplet, is the stiff and 
unwieldy unit with which both Common Conditions and Clyomon 



108 ROMANTIC DRAMA AT THE ENGLISH COURT 

and Clamydes are struggling to meet the demands of varied and 
natural dramatic expression. The entry of Common Conditions in 
the Stationers' Register fixes its date as not later than July, 1576, 
while a perceptibly greater maturity of style in the companion 
play points to a date of composition during the years immediately 
following. Its naive artistry fails to obscure many crudities, how- 
ever, and the metrical fashions which it exhibits argue strongly 
against a date much later than 1580. 

The greatest interest which Clyomon and Clamydes has hitherto 
aroused among critics has been in the question of its authorship, 
and much speculation, though Httle convincing argument, has 
been advanced, fixing the responsibihty upon various writers of 
the period. Dyce, in 1839, included it in his edition of the works 
of George Peele on the ground that "a manuscript note in a very 
old hand" upon the title-page of a copy of the play attributed it 
to Peele, though no copy bearing such a note is known to biblio- 
graphers today. This ascription was repeated by Ward^^ and 
others, who made no attempt to verify it. But when critical 
attention was once fixed upon the matter, it was found to be easy 
to disprove Peele's authorship, and this has been done to the 
satisfaction of almost every one.-^ Various other conjectures as 
to its author have been made. Fleay at first inclined to the opinion 
that both Clyomon and Clamydes and Common Conditions were 
the work of Robert Wilson, but later decided to claim them for 
the "R. B." (supposedly Richard Bower) whose initials occur on 
the title-page of Apius and Virginia,^'^ while Professor Kittredge, 
chiefly on the basis of parallelism in language, assigns both plays 
to Thomas Preston, author of Cambyses.^" 

The probability of a common authorship for the two plays has 
impressed almost every critic who has studied them, and others have 
followed Professor Kittredge in noting a general similiarity in 
spirit and method between them and Preston's Cam^byses. The 
argument, though plausible, is by no means conclusive, however. 
There are fairly close agreements in meter and vocabulary, as well 

^History of Eng. Dram. Lit., I, 203. 

" The most careful study of the question is that by L. Kellner, Englische Studien, 
XIII, 187-229. R. Fisher, Engl. Stud. XIV, 344-365, still argues in favor of the attri- 
bution to Peele. 

^ Chron. Eng. Drama, II, 296 

^ Jrl. Gmc. Phil., II, 8 fiF. 



EARLY SURVIVING ROMANTIC PLAYS 109 

as in spirit and subject-matter, between a number of extant plays 
of the early Elizabethan period for which a common authorship is 
never claimed —resemblances which may very well be due to 
current fashions in language and versification and to the use of 
long surviving dramatic conventions. The whole vexed problem 
is adequately disposed of by Mr. Tucker Brooke in his recent 
scholarly edition of Common Conditions. After pointing out the 
rather notable resemblance between certain details of Cambyses 
and Conditions, and the still more obvious resemblance between 
Conditions and Clyomon, he adds: ''Whether these similarities, 
undoubtedly striking as they are, can be held to justify the assump- 
tion of common authorship for the three plays or for two of them, 
can only be fairly determined, I think, when we are more m a 
position than at present to estimate how far such devices belonged 
to the general repertory of dramatic writers at the time when 
the plays were produced. "^^ 

But if we may not answer with finality the question of the 
authorship of Clyomon and Clamydes or the date of its composi- 
tion, we are more fortunate with respect to another question that 
has proved both puzzling and interesting, namely, that of its source. 
As noted above, it is the single surviving representative of a large 
group of early Elizabethan plays which found their plot materials 
in the mediaeval romances of chivalry. Knightly ideals of love 
and honor, the staple of mediaeval fiction, are here supported 
by the time-honored machinery of flying serpents, magic forests, 
wicked enchanters, storms, ship-wrecks, and all the other para- 
pherneHa with which the mediaeval repository was so liberally 
stocked. The genre to which the play belongs has always been 
absolutely beyond question, but the statement is sometimes made 
that the romance upon which it was based had been lost. Fleay 
characteristically sweeps aside all difficulty as to source by pro- 
nouncing both it and Common Conditions to be "long Vv^inded 
folk-lore romances."" The presence of certain incongruities in 
the motives and incidents of Clyomon and Clamydes has lent color 
to the suggestion that it was not a transference in toto of one of the 
rambUng tales of the Middle Ages to the EHzabethan stage, but a 
more or less free adaptation of conventional material, either by the 
dramatist himself or by some contemporary romancer who could 

26 Loc. ciL, p. 85. 

" Chron. Of English. Drama, II, 296. 



110 ROMANTIC DRAMA AT THE ENGLISH COURT 

still find inspiration in the traditions of feudalism and chivalry. 
But all difficulties of this kind disappear when the exact source 
of the play is known. 

Its story is a veritable riot of adventure. In the opening 
lines we are regaled with the excitement of a shipwreck, through 
which Sir Clamydes, son of the King of Suavia, is driven upon the 
shores of Denmark. Meeting with the King's daughter, Juliana, 
he learns from her that a certain flying serpent has its habitation 
in a neighboring magic forest, called the Forest of Strange Marvels, 
from which it emerges to prey upon fair ladies. He obtains the 
additional interesting information that she has made a vow pledging 
herself to give her hand in marriage to the knight who will per- 
form the feat of kilhng the serpent and presenting her with its head. 
Clamydes readily agrees to undertake this enterprise on condition 
that he first be allowed to return to the court of his father to receive 
the order of knighthood, and on his departure she presents him 
with a beautiful shield of silver, from which he thenceforth bears 
the name of "the white Knight of the Silver Shield." 

In what should be Act one. Scene two of the play we are intro- 
duced to the first of the titular heroes. Sir Clyomon, Knight of the 
Golden Shield, and brother of JuHana, who is travelling in disguise 
in search of adventure, and who has resolved to reveal his name 
and kindred only on condition that he be overthrown in single combat. 
Subtle Shift, a knave who declares himself to be Knowledge, 
son of Apollo, appears at this juncture, and is retained by Clyomon 
as his servant. The two reach the court of the King of Suavia 
just as the elaborate ceremonies of conferring Knighthood upon 
Clamydes are in full progress. Clyomon is seized with a desire 
to receive knighthood at the hands of the King; so, standing by 
unobserved, at the proper moment he slyly kneels at the feet of 
the monarch, who with uplifted sword is repeating the adjuration 
to courtesy, valor, etc., and receives upon his own shoulders the 
stroke that was intended for Clamydes. Having been dubbed a 
knight, he mounts his horse and flees rapidly, followed by Subtle 
Shift. The King is naturally furious at this intrusion, and orders 
immediate pursuit. Subtle Shift, on being captured, at once 
renounces his former master, and enters the service of Clamydes. 
The King completes the interrupted ceremony of conferring knight- 
hood upon his son, commands him to go in immediate pursuit of 
the unknown intruder who has robbed him of his honor, and not 



EARLY SURVIVING ROMANTIC PLAYS ^ ^ ^ 

to return to court until he has forced him to tell his name^ Clamy- 
des sets out at once, and coming upon t^^ °b^^' "I'^'^^f ™ 
demands an explanation of hs recent conduct. Ths of cou se 
the Knieht of the Golden Shield refuses. The battle is joinea, 
but !f°?r fighting furiously though indecisively Jors^^^^^^^^^ 

iiLKnTt^ofr^^^^^^^^^ 

o spend the intervening time in slaying the Jiymg sejpent wh.k 
the Knight of the Golden Shield contmues his pursmt of adven 

'-cl;r^d:lrp;^:^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 

b yTpts'lStment with the White Knight a.^ that e 
will be accused of cowardice in consequence. Unable to proceed 
further he falls prostrate upon the shore, where he is found by 
N rons, daughte^of the King of the Strange Marches. She has 
him taken secretly into the castle, and nurses him back to health 
wMch o cou'e leads to a love-affair of extraordinary sUength 
Id oroDortions Neronis asks his name and hneage, but these 
hfassures h r he cannot give without breaking a solemn vow^ His 
una™Wable delinquency in the matter of ^.s .^PP°'— ^^^^^ 
the White Knight weighs heavily upon his mind, and so when ame 

o tl , he sel out in haste to meet with that aggrieved cava 
at the earliest possible opportunity, agreeing to return to the Isle 

"' rf lif Ca:ture,t:^Ki^Tof Norway comes to woo Nero-;., 
but receiving Uttle encouragement, he entices her on board lus 

her lover has been slain, and is about to take tier ow ^ 
Providence appears to infonn her that he still lives, i^e two 
TheTr^^et without recognizing each other,^ Neronis being sU 1 m 
her man's garb, and Clyomon wearing his helmet with closed 



112 ROMANTIC DRAMA AT THE ENGLISH COURT 

visor, as was his custom. The Knight inquires the name of the 
handsome young rustic. "Couer Dacier," is the reply. "What, 
Heart of Steel?" he says; "the name pleases me well." She 
is then retained as his page. News arrives that the King of Strange 
Marches has lately died, and that a dispute over the succession 
of the crown has arisen between the Queen and Mustantius, brother 
of the late King. The matter is to be decided by wager of battle, 
and Clyomon goes thither with the double purpose of obtaining 
news of Neronis and of serving as champion to the Queen. 

In the meantime, Sir Clamydes, the White Knight, has been 
waging a losing fight against ill fortune. On leaving the Knight 
of the Golden Sliield, accompanied by his servant. Shift, he plunges 
into the Forest of Marvels in search of the flying serpent. He soon 
learns that this forest contains another peril. Brian Sans Foy, 
a cowardly magician, dwells there, spending his time in charming 
travellers a.nd shutting them up in prison. His chief desire is to 
cast a spell upon the knight who shall succeed in cutting off the 
head of the flying serpent, imprison him, rob him of his trophy, 
and thus through another's valor win for himself the fair Juliana, 
whom he is very desirous of possessing. These evil designs promise 
to succeed. Clamydes cuts off the head of the serpent according 
to program, but through the cowardly treachery of Subtle Shift, 
he is robbed of his trophy and imprisoned. The knavish servant 
repents of his treason at last, however, and liberates his master, 
along with several other imprisoned knights, on the very day set 
for the combat with Clyomon at the court of Alexander. The 
grief of Clamydes over the loss of the fruits of his valor, together 
with the w^hite shield given him by Juliana, is further increased 
by the reflection that his failure to meet the Knight of the Golden 
Shield will be attributed to cowardice. 

On being liberated, he sets out without any definite intentions, 
hoping that fortune will help him to recover his trophy and pre- 
serve his honor. He hears of the dispute over the succession of 
the crown in the Isle of Strange Marches, and proceeds thither. 
Offering himself as the champion of Mustantius, he is gratified 
to find himself confronted by Clyomon, who is serving in the same 
capacity to the Queen. Through the mediation of Alexander, 
however, the political dispute is settled without combat between 
the Knights. Their personal grievances are adjusted in the same 
way; and peace and amity being thus restored, they all set out to 



EARLY SURVIVING ROMANTIC PLAYS 113 

the court of Suavia to thwart the wicked designs of Brian Sans 
Foy. On arriving, they find the fortunes of the enchanter pros- 
pering. Re-enforced by the shield and the serpent's head, he has 
been received as the real Sir Clamydes by Juliana, who is on the 
point of redeeming her pledge by bestowing her hand upon him. 
But upon being challenged to combat by Clamydes, Brian acknowl- 
edges that he is an imposter, and is allowed to escape. The 
real indentity of Neronis, who as Couer D^Acier has all this time 
been serving Clyomon as a page, is at last revealed, and the nuptial 
celebrations follow in short order. 

The original of this wildly romantic story is to be found in the 
French prose romance of Perceforest. ^^ In Volume II, chapter 
142 of that work, Perceforest, King of Great Britain, is represented 
as conferring knighthood upon his only son, Bethides, and three 
of his nephews, sons of the King of India. The ceremonies are 
interrupted through the boldness of an unknown Knight bearing 
no insignia except a plain golden shield, precisely as described in 
the play. This incident, which sets in motion the machinery of the 
entire story, may perhaps be quoted in full. How the Knight of 
the Golden Shield received the stroke is told in the romance as 
follows : 

"Tandis que les damoiseaulx sarmoient et que le roy estoit 
tout apparielle pour leur donner la colee il yssit de la forest qui 
assez pres estoit ung ieune damoisel arme de haulbergeon et de 
chausses de fer, mais son escu et son heaulme pendoient a larson 
de la selle, et se portoit en sa senestre main une forte lance et ung 
esperons dorez. Si venoit se roidement quil sembloit quon le 
chassast a tuer, ainsi quil venoit tant quil pouoit: il regarde et 
voit ung chevalier arme de noires armes qui sapuyoit sur son 
cheual. . . . Le damoisel sen Vint a luy et luy dist. Sire cheva- 

^' A Treselegante, Delicieuse, MelliHue et tresplaisante H^stoire du tresnoble, 
Victorieux et excellentissinii roy Perceforest, Roy de la grant Bretaigne, fundateur 
du Franc palais et du temple du souuerain dieu. En laquelle le lecteur pourra veoir 
la source et decoration de toute Chevalerie, Culture de vraye Noblesse, Prouesses et 
conquestes infinies, accomplies des le temps du conquerant Alexandre le grant, et de 
Julius cesar au par avant la nativite de nostre soiJueur Jesuchrist. " Folio, Black 
Letter. 6 vols, in 3. Galliot du Pre, Paris, 1528. The romance is diiBcult of access, 
especiall}' to American students. A copy, formerly in the library of the Duke of 
Roxburghe and that of N. Yeminiz, has been since February, 1908, in the Library of 
Harvard University, from which I was able to secure it through the kind cooperation 
of the Librar)- of the University of Chicago. 



114 ROMANTIC DRAMA AT THE ENGLISH COURT 

Her ie vous prie que me Vueillez ceindre mon espee et chausser mon 
esperons dorez, car ie seray tantost cheualier se ie puis. Le chevalier 
qui pensoit moult fort a une grosse besongne quil avoit affaire, 
quil ne veoit pas a sa voulente: si estoit tout courrouce, et toutes- 
fois luy respondit et dist. Sire escuyer delivrez moy les esperons 
et lespee, et le ieune damoisel luy bailla, et le chevalier print les 
esperons et luy chaussa a cheval: et puis luy ceindist lespee et 
luy dist. Or vouz fault la colee. Sire dist le damoisel ie attens 
a recevoir la colee du plus preudhomme du monde. Lors brocha 
son cheval des esperons et sen alia cheuauchant grant erre. Moult 
fut lie le iouuencel quant il se sentit si aduance destre chevalier. 
. . , Lors regarda emmy la prayerie et veit quatre chavaliers 
armez a pied. Et ung chevalier arme qui adouboit trois damoi- 
seaulx. Tantost qui les veit le cuer luy dist que cestoit le chevalier 
qui adouboit son filz et ses deux nepueux. Lors fut si lye quil 
tressailloit tout de ioye, et part angresse sailloit ius de son cheval, 
si lanca en la moyenne deulx et mist son col soubz la palme de la 
main du gentil roy quil auoit hault leue pour donner la colee a son 
filz. Et le roy ferit telle colee que toute la place en retentit en 
disant. Chevaher soyes preux et loyal, et le nouuel chevalier se 
leua et dist. Si seray ie si plaist dieu, et grant mercis de vostre 
doctrine ennuyt faicte au temple. Lors se retourna tout a ung 
faix, si saillit sur son cheval puis se fiert au tourney arme. . . . 
Quant le roy veit lestrange adventure il fut tout esbahy, lors dist 
tant en hault. Damoisel qui a supplante la colee a mon filz, et 
puis se departit de nous se soubdainement, . . . cest signe de 
grant valleur . . . Sire dist lung des chevaliers Indois faictes 
les damoiseaulx chevaliers car si vostre filz eust receu la colee il 
fust mort. Sire chevalier dist le roy ie le feray. Lors haulsa la 
paulme et luy donna une grande colee en disant. Chevalier soyez 
preux et hardy et loyal a meilleure heure que deuant neussiez 
este afifm que iamais ne retourne du tournoy si me sache adire 
quel chavalier fut qui to supplanta la colee. Quant le roy eut ce 
dit Bethides le ieune chevalier respondit. Cher seigneur vostre mer- 
cis ie feray vostre commandement. . . . Bethides portoit armes toutes 
blanches . . . etle ieune chevalier qui portoit la colee premiere portoit 
unes armes toutes dor sans autre enseigne. Bien auez vous ouy 
comment le roy Perceforest fist son filz chevalier, et ses troie 
cousins, et comment le chevaHer aux armes dor eut la primiere 
colee par sa grande tangresse quil auoit destre chavalier. "^^ 

2' Volume II, chapter 142. 



EARLY SURVIVING ROMANTIC PLAYS 115 

Le Blanc Chavalier loses no time in setting about the execution 
of his father's commands, and being once embarked on his mission, 
he must not again see "le roy son pere tant quil scauroit le nom 
du chevalier aux armes dor: qui depuis fut nomme le chevalier 
dore, pource que il vint au tournay couuert luy et son cheval de 
couuertures dorees sans autre congnoissance et son escu, et puis 
porta lescu si languement que luy en demoura le nom. " 

The first encounter occurs in the immediate neighborhood of 
the court. On seeing his enemy, the White Knight cries, "Sire 
Chevalier, arestez vouz tout que vous me ayez dit vostre nom." 
"Comment, beau Sire," dist le Chevalier, "qui estes vous qui 
mon nom voulez scauoir?" "Je suis," dist Bethides, "ung cheva- 
lier a qui vous auez fait villennye. " "Sire," dist le chevalier dore, 
"sachez vous que jay voue que mon nom ne diray a chevalier se 
je ne le tiens a la batailie meilleur chevalier que moy. "^^ 

The issue being thus squarely drawn, they fight furiously for 
some time, but neither can gain the advantage. Owing to the 
unseasonable hour — it is midnight — the Black Knight, who is 
watching the conflict, suggests that the fight be discontinued, 
and that they meet fifteen days hence at the Pine of Marvels in 
the Forest of Darnant, to decide the question at issue. Both 
agree to this, and pledge their sacred honor to meet at the time 
and place specified. Each then goes his way. 

The story is resumed in Volume three, chapter five. Le Cheva- 
Here Dore goes abroad asking everyone how and where he can find 
"le pin de la fiere merveille." He gets no satisfactory reply 
until he puts the question to an ancient dame at whose house he 
has passed the night. Yes, she has heard of the Pine of Marvels. 
It is, she thinks, two days' journey from there, toward the rising 
sun. Proceeding as per directions, he reaches the pine on the day 
before that set for the meeting. Nailed to the tree he finds a scroll 
bearing an inscription to the effect that "Nul ne doit estre tenu 
pour chevalier sil na veille icy une nuyct pour y veoir les merueilles 
qui ef aduiennent. " Of course he can not afford to ignore this 
challenge of his valor, and takes up his position at the foot of the 
tree. But shortly after nightfall he hears a roaring sound as if a 
storm were approaching, and when he regains consciousness, he 
finds himself lying alone and deathly sick in a meadow in an utterly 
unfamiHar country. Presently a beautiful young girl appears, 

30 Volume III, chapter 144, fol. 144 b. 



116 ROMANTIC DRAMA AT THE ENGLISH COURT 

and with the help of her companions, she removes him to a near-by 
castle, where for many weary days she ministers to him, and finally 
restores him to health. She tells him that he is in the land of the 
Strange Marches, and that she is Nerones, daughter of the King of 
the country. She asks about himself, but with deep concern lest 
he be thought discourteous, he replies that he has vowed not to 
reveal his name or state, unless overcome by force of arms. She 
is certain that he is of distinguished lineage, however, and declares 
her love for him. He assures her that the passion is mutual, but 
adds that obligations involving his honor must take him out of 
the country as soon as he is able to travel. He promises, however, 
to return in sixty days. She warns him that delay is dangerous, 
refers to several suitors who are more or less insistent, and men- 
tions specifically the King of Norway, who is expected to arrive 
in the country to conduct his suit in person. He insists that he 
must first discharge some unnamed duty, however, and sets out, 
bitterly lamenting that fate has prevented his keeping faith with 
the White Knight. 

Almost immediately the King of Norway appears in the Strange 
Marches and announces his suit.^^ The King, father of Nerones, 
expresses himself as altogether favorable, but announces that the 
custom and usage of the country are that, when a King's daughter 
is to be married, the prospective husband must spend sixty days 
on the Isle Despreuve; and if during this time any knight comes to 
fight with him and overthrows him, he must depart without seeing 
the princess again. The King of Norway, though not pleased, is 
forced to consent. The first night he spends on the Isle of Trial, 
he has a dream that a knight comes from Great Britain, takes 
him by the feet, and throws him into the river. This dream recurs 
every night until the fifteenth night, when he dreams that a cavalier 
bearing a golden shield comes and puts him to death. This ter- 
rifies him beyond measure. After consulting with some of his 
lords, he >aelds to the suggestion th^t Nerones be carried away 
at once by force, and the plan is speedily put into execution. 

But preceding this, Nerones, becoming alarmed at the turn 
aft'airs were taking, despatched one of her maids to find the chevalier 
dore, and warn him that the King of Norway was already spending 
his time on the Isle of Trial, and that unless something were done, 
she would soon have to become his wife.^- 

^' The story is resumed in Vol. Ill, Chap. 2>?>. 

'- The account of the meeting between the Chevalier Dore and this maiden, 
and the mutur.l yhock they experienced on discovering that unknov-'in^'o' they had 



EARLY SURVIVING ROMANTIC PLAYS 117 

When the Chevalier Dore learns of this, he gives up the search 
for the White Knight, and returns to the Strange Marches, only 
to find that Nerones has already been carried away. He goes 
in pursuit. But Nerones proves a very troublesome captive for 
the King of Norway. She at last outwits him by feigning death, 
and is put into the tomb. But when the burial party has with- 
drawn, she steals out of the tomb, goes to a farm-house some 
miles away, and recounts her troubles. The lady in whom she 
confides suggests that, in order to elude the King of Norway, who 
is certain to discover the deception and begin search, she assume 
the disguise of a shepherd boy, and spend her time for a while in 
tending sheep. This pleases Nerones immensely, and she carries 
out the suggestion at once, the lady laughingly conferring on 
her, when she sees her dressed as a boy, the name of Couer Dacier, 
in honor of her faithfulness to her lover.^^ 

In the meanwhile the Chevalier Dore has been pursuing the 
King of Norway. Overtaking him at last, he puts him to death, 
and with the help of a hermit who passes by opportunely, buries 
him. The incidents of this part of the romance — the finding of 
this grave by Nerones, her recognition of the shield of her lover, 
and her joy upon learning that he is still alive and searching for 
her — are essentially those of the play.^* Upon leaving the hermit, 
the ChevaHer Dore himself spends some time with the lowly people 
of the country, but his martial instincts reassert themselves, and 
he takes service as the squire of a knight named Pernehan, calling 
himself Tarquin, to conceal his true identity. ^^ In this capacity he 
fights and overthrows a gigantic knight named Branq, "cousin 
germain au geant aux crains dorez"; and Pernehan, out of grati- 
tude, fits him out with a horse and arms, so that he may continue 
his search for Nerones. 

As he is taking leave of Pernehan, a young lad appears and asks 
permission to serve as his squire. "Sire," il dist, "si il vous plaist 
je vous seruiray a mon pouoir bien et souffisamment et ne mespar- 

passed a night together at the foot of an oak tree, is highly amusing, but too long to 
be given even in summary here. It is told in III, 34 fol. 88 b-94 a. 

^' "Par ma foy vecy ung beau valletan fendu, mais jen veulx estre la marraine, 
car desorenois le nommeray cueur dacier. Quant la pucelle se ouyt nommer cueur 
dacier elle commenca a rire disant que le nom luy plaisoit bien." Ill, 35, fol. 94b. 

^ Vol. Ill, chap. 35. 

^ Ibid., Chap. 36. 



118 ROMANTIC DR.\MA AT THE ENGLISH COURT 

gnez, car combien que je saye jeune, si ay je les membres fors et 
durs. " Mais quant Tarquin eut entendu le jouvencel, qui parloit si 
promptement, il le prisa moult, et dist, "Beau sire, vous soyez 
bien venu, or me dictez vostre nom." "Sire," dist le jouvencel, 
Ion me nom Cueur Dacier." "Cueur Dacier!" dist Tarquin. 
" Cast ung nom de hault emprinse. " " Sire. " dist il, " qui me vault 
avoir si me nomme ainsi. " "II me plaist tres bien, " dist le Cheva- 
lier Dore" . . . Autant le Chevalier Dore print conge de Per- 
nehan, il se mist a la voye de grant randon, car il estoit monte a 
lavantage, et si avoit tout autre serviteur quil ne cuydoit, car 
cestoit la belle Nerones quil aymoit mieulx que toutes les femmes 
du monde."^*^ 

Nerones is equally in the dark as to the identity of her new 
master, however, since the Chevalier Dore no longer carries his 
golden arms, and continues his old custom of travelhng always with 
closed helmet. Several days' association with him confirms her 
suspicion that she is serving her lover, however, though dread of 
the embarrassment of revealing her identity induces her to con- 
tinue the disguise. 

They travel on until they come to a country called Borras, 
where there is a dispute over the succession of the crown. It having 
been decided to settle the matter by wager of battle, the Chevalier 
Dore offers his services to one of the claimants, and, as luck would 
have it, the Blanc Chevalier, who has been roaming all lands in 
search of his enemy, casts in his sword for the cause of the other.^^ 

With mutual lack of recognition, the two Knights confront 
each other in the lists. The battle is joined and waged with awful 
fury. The spectators are so moved by the valor of the contestants 
and the terrible punishment which each is receiving, that they ask 
the disputing parties to arrange a compromise. This is done. 
The poHtical feud is settled. But the Blanc Chevalier, having 
discovered that his antagonist is really the Chevalier Dore, demands 
to know his name. This is refused of course, and the tight is re- 
newed with redoubled fury. The decisive blow can not be delivered, 
though on the whole the Chevalier Dore has a Httle the better of 
it. During a lull in the conflict the young Knight Gaddifer, 
son of the King of Scotland, sees through a rent in the armor of 
Chevalier Dore a birthmark on his shoulder, by which he recognizes 

36 Vol. Ill, fol. 98 a. 

" These events are related in Vol. Ill, Chap. 40. 



EARLY SURVIVING ROMANTIC PLAYS 119 

in the Chevalier Dore his brother, Nestor, cousin of the Blanc 
Chevalier. This discovery of course brings about the solution of 
all difficulties. The Chevalier Dore can no longer conceal his 
identity, though he has not been forced to reveal it to a better 
knight than himself. The Blanc Chevalier can now return to 
his father's court, since he knows who his opponent is. In company 
with his squire, the Chevalier Dore goes for a visit to his royal 
parents in Scotland, where the clever disguise of Cueur Dacier 
is soon penetrated by the keen eye of the Knight's mother, and 
in the end all things turn out as is proper in the ideal world of 
romance.^^ 

It will be evident, of course, that the dramatist has reproduced 
the essential features of this narrative with strict fidelity. The 
material for the Clamydes-Juliana element of his plot he has 
treated somewhat more freely. In the flying serpent which preys 
upon fair ladies, the reward offered by Juliana for its destruction, 
the loss of the trophy through the machinations of the imposter 
Brian Sans Foy, his unmasking, and the final triumph of justice 
in the marriage of Clamydes and Juliana, we have a perfect version 
of a legend widely dissemiated in literature and folk-lore, and known 
from its classic examplar as the Rescue of Andromeda.^^ To Eng- 
lishmen of the sixteenth century it was doubtless most familiar 
as the legend of Saint George.^*^ There is no doubt, however, 
that the author of Clyomon and Clamydes used the slightly distorted 
version which occurs in the romance of Perceforest, though the in- 
fluence of the popular tradition is seen in his apparent effort to 
restore it to the conventional form. 

The outline of the story as it occurs in the romance is as fol- 
lows:*^ A Knight named Lyonnel du Glar is anxious to wed the 

^* The account of the unmasking of Cueur Dacier is such a happy blending of 
qualities not often found in the romances of chivalry — humor, pathos, and a charming 
naivete which dispels every suggestion of immodesty — that I have been strongly 
tempted to quote it in full. 

38 This fact is called to my attention by Professor BaskerviU. The most compre- 
hensive study of the legend is that by E. Sidney Hartland, The Legend of Perseus, 
3 vols. London, 1894. 

" Besides the numerous folk plays on the subject, there had apparently been a 
dramatic rendering of the classic story in a court play, — the "Percius and Anthomeris, " 
given by Mulcaster's children on Shrove Tuesday, 1574. See Feuillerat, Revels of 
Elizabeth, p. 208. 

^^The story begins with Vol. Ill, chap. 33, and e.xtends over chapters 47, 48, 55, 
57, 58, 61, 74, 75, and 80. 



120 ROMANTIC DRAMA AT THE ENGLISH COURT 

Princess Blanche, daughter of the King of Scotland, and sister 
of the Chevalier Dore. He is told that her hand will be given 
only to him who shall slay a certain flying serpent, destroy two 
lions who are ravaging the Kingdom of the Strange Marches, 
and bring to her the head of the Giant with Golden Hair. Accom- 
panied by his squire, Clamydes, Lyonnel sets out to accomplish 
all these feats. After incredible difficulties he succeeds in slaying 
the flying serpent and the two lions whose ravages have almost 
converted the Strange Marches into a desert. But in "le geant 
aux creins dorez" he has a still more dreadful antagonist. Arriv- 
ing at the isle of the giant, Lyonnel and Clamydes find a woman 
weeping bitterly. On asking the reason, they are told that she 
is the wife of the giant, and has Hved on the island with him fifty 
years. She is the daughter of a nobleman of Denmark, and fifty 
years ago she married a knight of that country, who for his great 
size and the beauty of his hair, "est appelle le geant aux cheveulx 
dorez." Until the birth of their daughter nine years ago, she 
lived happily enough with the giant, but since then he has developed 
bad habits, and makes no secret that "si tost que sa fille sera en 
aage quil puisse gesir avec elle, quil me gectera en la mer." More- 
ever, "il mest autant des bonnes damoisselles de ceste ysle quil 
par sa vile luxure ravist pour faire sa voulente, dont les il acoustre 
tellement quelles meurent tantost: car elles ne sont pas de grandeur 
pour le recevoir." Lyonnel and Clamydes decide that their time 
will be well employed in ridding society of such a repulsive creature, 
and soon have his golden head safe in their possession. Before 
leaving the island, however, Clamydes marries the daughter of 
the giant, who, though only nine years old, is taller than the tallest 
knight, and who, in marked contrast to her father, is of a very 
sweet and gentle disposition. On the return to Scotland "ung 
faulx chevalier" named Harban, through the aid of enchantments, 
gets possession of the "chef aux creins dorez," imprisons Lyonnel, 
and proceeds to court to claim the hand of the princess. His 
fraud is discovered, however, and he is exposed. Lyonnel falls 
victim of new dangers through the wiles of the cowardly magician, 
Bruyant Sans Foy. He is imprisoned, along with several other 
knights, but just as Bruyant is making ready to murder the entire 
company, they are rescued by friendly knights of the "Franc 



EARLY SURVIVING ROMANTIC PLAYS 121 

Palais. "^2 Blanche is pleased to redeem her promise in marriage 
by the same ceremony that unites Nerones and the Chevalier Dore.'** 

It will be noted that the English dramatist has transferred 
these adventures of Lyonnel — with slight modifications — to his 
Sir Clamydes, the White Knight, making them serve as an obstacle 
to prevent his meeting the Knight of the Golden Shield at the Court 
of Alexander. That this story, rather than some other version of 
the Andromeda legend, was his original, is proved, moreover, not 
only by his use of the name "Clamydes" for his White Knight, 
but also by his taking over the character '"Bruyant Sansfoy." 
In the romance the role of Imposter is assigned the "faulx cheva- 
lier" Harban. The dramatist has eliminated Harban and given 
both roles to Brian. In representing Brian as a coward whose 
business is that of murdering knights whom he has put to sleep 
by magic, the dramatist follows the romance exactly. Bruyant 
Sansfoy is a descendant of the enchanter Darnant who filled the 
land with terror before Alexander came to Britian with Betis and 
Gaddifer. Betis, at great peril, penetrated the magic forest in which 
Darnant had his abode, and slew him, for which feat he was chris- 
tened Perceforest, King of Great Britian, by Alexander, who also 
established Gaddifer as King of Scotland. These two royal gen- 
tlemen become the fathers of the Blanc Chevalier and the Cheva- 
Her Dore, respectively. It was not to be expected, therefore, that 
Bruyant, who still dwelled in the Forest of Marvels, should enter- 
tain any kindly feelings for Perceforest and his Knights of the 
Franc Palais. In fact, he hated them bitterly, but being a coward, 
he did no dare to meet them openly, and his maHgnant treachery 
had won him the title of Bruyant ''Sansfoy.""*^ 

For the incidents of his plot, then, the author of Clyomon and 
Clamydes is wholly indebted to the romance of Perceforest, except 
for the slight modifications made here and there to accommodate 
the action to the conventional comic figure, Subtle Shift. Often, 
too, the language and the circumstancial detail of the original 
are plainly discernible in the ranting couplets of the play, as will 

^ A chivalric association founded by Perceforest, and corresponding in general 
to the Round Table of King Arthur. 

*' Cf. Vol. IV, chap. 1. The account of these roj'al weddings is highly interesting 
from the standpoint of social history. 

^ The punishment which he so richly deserves comes at last in very strange fashion ; 
he is slain by an infant only one year old, posthumus son of one of the many knights 
whom he had murdered in their sleep. Cf. Vol. IV, Chap. 14. 



122 ROMANTIC DRAMA AT THE ENGLISH COURT 

be evident from a comparison of certain passages. The indebted- 
ness begins apparently with the prologue. The romance seeks 
to sharpen the intellectual palates of its readers as follows: 

"Vousy verrez, OMagnifiques Seigneurs, le vaillant Perceforest 
et le noble Gaddifer son frere instituez roys par le conquerour 
Alexandre le grant. . . . Vous verrez lordounance du franc 
palais, ou nestoit laysible a cueur recree trouuer addresse. Vous 
verrez douze chevaliers tons fils de roys venir en estat priuue, 
dissimulans leur royalle origine pour plus a liberte exercer chev- 
alerie. Vous leur verrez vouer douze veux, le moindre plus dif- 
ficle que les douze labeurs du grant Hercules. Vous verrez ceulx 
veux acomplyz et mis a fin. . . , Vous verrez les desduitz de 
plusieurs amans, les peines martires et plaintifz deulz et delleurs 
amyes. Vous verrez les incredibles forces des enchantemens dont 
se couuroit le desloyal Darnant en ses forestz. Vous le verrez 
suppediter et mettre a mort par le victorieux Perceforest. . . . 
Vous verrez Bruyant sans foy ennemy des chevaliers du franc 
palais plusieures foys les decevoir. Et a la parlin le verrez vaincre 
et mettre a mort par Passelyon enfant dung an. . . . Brief vous 
verrez tant de merueilleuses entreprinses, guerres, tournoys, 
adventures, layz, propheties, detectables propos, chevaleureuses 
doctrines, exemples salutaires. " 

The dramatist is much less specific, but the similarity in matter 
and the parallehsm in structure are hardly accidental. He says: 

"As lately lifting up the leaves of worthy writers workes, 
Wherein the noble acts and deeds of many hidden lurks, 
Our Author he hath found the Glasse of glory shining bright, 
Wherein their lives are to be seen, which honour did delight. 
Wherein the froward chances oft, of Fortune you shall see, 
Wherein the chearefull countenance of good successes bee, 
Wherein true Lovers findeth joy, with hugie heapes of care, 
Wherein as well as famous facts, ignomius placed are: 
Wherein the just reward of both, is manifestly showne. 
That virtue from the root of Vice, might openly be known, " etc. 

Whatever basis of comparison is chosen, it soon becomes evident 
that the Engfishman has not improved his borrowed material. 
Indeed, in every instance the change from the simple prose to the 
uncouth metrics is accompanied with a distinct loss in force and 
dignity. Let us take, for example, the reported meeting of the two 



EARLY SURVIVING ROMANTIC PLAYS 123 

knights after the interrupted ceremonies at the court of Perce- 
forest. As the romance has it, — 

"Damp Chevalier, (dist Bethides) supplanteur dautruy hon- 
neur, gardez vous de moy iouster conuient. Le chevalier dor 
respondit courtoisement et dist. Sire chevaher, amender pouez 
vostre parolle sil vous plaist, car ie ne suis supplanteur dautruy 
honneur, et se ie me suis advaunce pour mon honneur, et iay receu 
la colee que oncques ne fut a tort, car elle estait mienne. . . . 
Sire Chevalier, dist Bethides arrestez vous tant que vous me ayez 
dit vostre nom. Comment, beau sire, dist le chevalier dore, qui 
estes vous, qui mon nom voulez scauoir. Je suis, dist Bethides, 
ung chevalier a qui vous auez fait villennye, et vrayement sil fust 
heure vous lamendissiez. . . . Sire, dist le chevalier dore: Se 
aucunement vous auoys meifait lamende ne seroit pas oultrageuse, 
mais tant veulx que vous sachez que iay voue que mon nom ne 
diray a chevalier que moy. "^^ 

It is interesting to note how the tone of dignified courtesy 
here used is changed to one of vulgar raillery when the incident 
is transferred to the drama: 

''Clamy. Stay thou cowardly knight, 

that like a dastard camst, to steal away my right. 
Clyo. What, what, you raile sir prinkocks Prince me coward 

for to call. 
Clamy. Well for what intent camst thou my honour to steal 

away? 
Clyo. That I tooke ought from thee, I utterly denay. 
Clamy. Didst thou not take the honour which my father 

to me gave? 
Clyo. Of that thou hadst not, I could thee not deprave. 
Clamy. Didst thou not take away my Knighthood from me? 
Clyo. No, for I had it before it was given unto thee. 

And having it before thee, what argument canst thou 

make. 
That ever from thee the same I did take? 
Clamy. Well, what hight they name, let me that understand, 
And wherefore thou travailedst here in my father's 

land 
So boldly to attempt in his court such a thing? 

«Vol. II, fol. 151b. 



124 ROMANTIC DR.A.MA AT THE ENGLISH COURT 

Clyo. The bolder the attempt is, more honour doth it bring: 

But what my name is desirest thou to know? 
Clamy. What thy name is, I would gladly perstand: 
Clyo. Nay, that shall none never know, unlesse by force of 
hand 
He vanquish me in fight, such a vow I have made, 
And therefore to combat with me, thyself do per- 
swade," etc/*^ 

A comparison of these passages shows a rather close corres- 
pondence between them in the minor matters of detail, with a 
distinct lowering of the stately pitch in passing from the romance 
to the play, and this may be said to be the case throughout. The 
way in which the narrative matter is fitted into the dramatic mould 
is perhaps worth one more illustration. When the King of Norway 
learns that Nerones has eluded him, he soliloquizes thus: 

"Ha Nerones faulse et doubliere qui eust cuyde telle subtillesse 
en vous, il a euidenment appareu en vostre fait que vous sentez 
de la haulte Bretaigne ou toutes les femmes sont enchantresses, 
. . . il nya nul remede elle ma bien trampe: mais se iamais ie la 
puis trouuer, tout lor du monde ne les scauroit garantir de mort. " 
He is discovered by the ChevaHer Dore, who cries, — "Ha faulz 
et desloyal roy, nas tu honte de fuyr deuant ung seul chevalier. 
Tu as disrobe a ta malle sante la pucelle Nerones en son hastel, 
et au gyron de son pere . . . tu mourras ains tu meschappes. 
. . . Faulx traistre et mouuais ravisser de pucelles, le jour est 
venu que tu rendras compte de ta trahison. . . . Le roy qui 
estoit fort et puissant et qui estoit en son meilleur aage environ 
quarante ans . . . print la parolle en disant. Notre maistre qui 
nestes que une pouppee selon vostre aage ou auez vous prins le 
hardement de moy suyiur: se ieusse cuyde que chevalier de tout 
petite me eust chasse . . . si te demande comme a celluy qui 
est deuenu chevalier deuant son term, qui tu es, et se tu es celluy 
qui se dit lamoureux de Nerones. Par ma foy malheureux roy 
respondit le chevalier dore. Je suis in tout honneur seruiteur a 
la pucelle, laquelle le dieu souuerain vueille garder ou que elle 
soit. Se te diz pour toutes choses que iamais de mes mains ne 
eschappesas tant que ie te auray mis a mort. "^^ 

46 11. 440-468. The remarks of Subtle Shift are omitted. 
*' Vol. Ill, fol. 92 a. 



EARLY SURVIVING ROMANTIC PLAYS 125 

In the drama this becomes, — 

"Thras. Oh subtill Neronis, how hast thou me vexed? 

Through thy crafty deahngs how am I perplexed? 
Did ever any winne a dame, and lose her in such sort? 
The maladies are marvellous, the which I do support 
Through her deceit, but forth I will my company 

to meet, 
If ever she be caught againe, I will her so intreate, 
That others all shall warning take, by such a subtill 

dame. 
How that a Prince for to delude, such ingins they 
do frame. 
Enter Clyomon Knight of the Golden Shield 
Clyo. Nay, Traytour, stay and take with thee that mortall 
blow or stroke 
The which shall cause thy wretched corps this life for 

to revoke. 
It enjoyeth me at the hart that I have met thee in 
this place. 
Thras. What varlet darest thou be so bold, with words in 
such a cace, 
For to upbraide thy Lord and King? What art 
thou soone declare? 
Clyo. My Lord and King, I thee defie, and in despite I dare 
Thee for to say thou art no Prince, for thou a traytour 

art. 
And what reward is due therefore, to thee I shall impart. 
Thras. Thou braggest all to boldly still, what hight thy name 

expresse? 
Clyo. What hight my name thou shalt not know, ne will 
I it confess: 
But for that thou my lady stolest from fathers court 

away. 
He sure revenge that trayterous fact upon thyself 

this day. 
Since I have met so luckily with thee here all alone, 
Although as I do understand, from thee she now is gone, 
Yet therefore do defend thyself, for here I thee assaile, 
Thras. Alas poore boy, thinkest thou against me to prevaile? 
Here let them fight, the King fall downe dead.''*^ 

"11. 1351-75. 



126 ROMANTIC DRAMA AT THE ENGLISH COURT 

From these illustrations it will be evident that the French 
romance of chivalry has undergone no improvement in the trans- 
formation into Enghsh heroic drama. The contrary is in fact the 
case. The original itself promised little enough in the way of 
successful dramatic presentation, and the employment of an 
absurdly inappropriate medium of expression made virtual failure 
a foregone conclusion. Certainly to this more than to any other 
one thing is due the impression of crudity. But his material 
contained possibilities that the dramatist evidently did not recog- 
nize. Nor is the fact surprising. In obedience, doubtless, to popu- 
lar demand, he seems to have been mainly intent on preserving — 
and heightening — the screeching heroics of his original, — ranting 
soliloquies and contests in personal abuse carried on between the 
leading protagonists. Whatever is incapable of adaptation to 
the vein of boistrous melodrama is either passed over in silence 
or else so blunted and dulled in the presentation that its original 
charm is quite lost. Out of much that is irrational and extravagant 
in the romance of Perceforest, the dramatist has chosen an episode 
of intrinsic literary merit, — the love story of Neronis and the 
Chevalier Dore, and while his dramatic version is not v/ithout a 
crude interest, it fails to preserve even the naive simplicity of the 
original. The masculine disguise of Neronis yields only melo- 
drama. It would be highly uncharitable to remind the reader 
of Viola and Rosalind. 

It should also be noted in this connection that, although Neronis 
is found for a time in the company of shepherds and meets her 
knightly lover amid country scenes, the pastoral element in its 
true sense is wholly lacking. These incidents bring no breath of 
sylvan freshness, but become simply the occasion of a bit of unen- 
tertaining clownage. Corin is not the shepherd of poetic imagina- 
tion, but a vulgar yokel, speaking the dialect of Hodge and Diccon 
the Bedlam, and living a life of repulsive immorality. The roman- 
tic blending of courtly and country life, so happily affected by 
writers Hke Sidney and Greene, was still absent from English 
comedy when Clyomon and Clamydes was written. The presence 
of Corin in the play is due to the same cause that begets Subtle 
Shift, — the carrying on of earlier dramatic tradition. They are 
the conventional figures of low comedy, as are the similar characters 
in Cambyses, Orestes, Damon and Pithias, and Common Condition s 



EARLY SURVIVING ROMANTIC PLAYS 127 

In connection with the discussion of the source of Clyomon and 
Clamydes, it might be well to add that certain incongruities 
which commentators have noted in the setting and atmosphere 
of the play are perhaps adequately accounted for when once the 
source is known. The presence of Alexander the Great as the 
adjudicator in the quarrels between the princes of western Europe, 
and the facility with which the action shifts back and forth between 
Denmark, Macedonia, and the mythical Kingdom of the Strange 
Marches, have been censured as working havoc with both space 
and time, to say nothing of the violence done to our sense of his- 
torical relations. Besides this meeting of the east and west in the 
setting and in the dramatis personae, the play contains other slightly 
incongruous elements. The enveloping atmosphere is of course 
that of feudalism and chivalry, but there is a trifle more than the 
impression of mere habit of speech in the frequent allusions to 
the characters of Grecian mythology. The Olympian deities are 
often mentioned, both individually and collectively. The references 
to fortune, too, as the controlling power in human destiny are still 
more frequent. Into her hands the characters commit themselves 
with prayers for her favor. Upon her shoulders they place the 
responsibility of their acts and blame her for the results which 
these acts have caused. In consequence the matter of mediaeval 
romance is given a faintly perceptible classical tinge. 

But in all these matters the author of the play is only following 
his original. The presence of Alexander and the other marks of 
eastern affiliation are derived directly from the romance of Perce- 
forest, the six folio volumes of which were conceived as a sequel 
to the Voeux du Paon. That the continuity may be made clear, 
a full abstract of the Voeux is given in the first volume of Perce- 
forest. The romance begins with the meeting of Alexander and 
Cassanius, and the war with Claurus. After the consummation 
of the marriages which were arranged in the Voeux du Paon — Gadifer 
and Lydaine, parents of the Chevalier Dore, and Betis and Ydorus, 
parents of the Blanc Chevalier — in company with Alexander, they 
all set out to visit the temple of Venus, but a supernatural tempest 
drives them upon the shores of Great Britain. For his feat in 
slajdng Darnant, Betis is established as King of Great Britain, 
with the name of Perceforest. The Kingdom of Scotland is 
bestowed upon Gaddifer. In the romance, Alexander does not 
actually participate in the incidents appropriated by the author 



128 ROMANTIC DRAMA AT THE ENGLISH COURT 

of Clyomon and Clamydes, but he is taken over as a sort of super- 
hero, and the final meeting between the knights is set to take 
place at his court rather than at the Pine of Marvels, as provided 
in the original. 

The historical importance of Sir Clyomon and Sir Clamydes in 
the development of the EngHsh romantic drama depends to a 
great extent upon the date of its composition, and of this we can 
not be certain. If, as seems altogether probable from internal 
evidence, it is correctly assigned to the middle or late seventies, 
then, as a measure of the degree of maturity which the romantic 
species had attained by that time, and as an exemplar, presumably, 
of the large number of plays upon similar themes which are known 
to have been produced during this decade but which have not 
been preserved, it is of tremendous importance historically, for it 
shares with Common Conditions alone the distinction of being the 
representative of its period and type. As measuring the approach 
to the artistic drama, we find the attempt, with the handicap of a 
crude and unwieldly verse-form, to present seriously and with the 
single end of giving pleasure, a story of love and adventure delib- 
erately chosen from a romantic source. The love element, though 
prominent and treated with seriousness and dignity, is nevertheless 
somewhat cold and perfunctory, depending for its romantic appeal 
upon the external and the incidental rather than inner psychological 
probability. The assuming of male disguise by the heroine — 
probably the earliest appearance of this popular motive in Eliza- 
bethan drama — is not wholly ineffective, though unfortunately 
for itself, it suggests comparison with similar situations devised 
by Shakespeare, the exquisite charm of which makes us all the more 
intolerant of heavy-handed bungling. Of characterization in the 
strict sense, there is none in the play, and v/hatever interest it is 
able to command must grow wholly out of the incidents of its 
plot. The two titular heroes themselves are without even the sha- 
dow of individuality, or internal trait by which they may be dis- 
tinguished from each other. The fidehty with which the author 
of the play adhered to his original source makes it superfluous to 
speak of his power over his material. His one bit of initiative 
consisted in transferring the Andromeda legend from a different 
part of the romance and engrafting it on to his principal story. 
Everywhere else — except in the names, some of which he seems 
to have invented — he is wholly dependent upon his original. But 



EARLY SURVIVING ROMANTIC PLAYS 129 

in spite of its extravagant subject-matter and crude style, if its 
tortured language and versification may be so called, Clyomon and 
Clamydes is deserving of respectful attention from the student of 
Elizabethan drama. Historically, if not intrinsically, its claim to 
distinction is well founded. 



CHAPTER V 
The Early Romantic Drama In Contemporary Criticism 

One of the most striking anomalies in the history of English 
literature is the attitude of open hostility or contemptuous neglect 
which contemporary criticism assumed toward the Elizabethan 
romantic drama. What the well-nigh unanimous verdict of all 
later times has pronounced the magnum opus of the English Renais- 
sance found no sponsor among the critics of its own age. With 
the public, to be sure, it was taken, even in its crude beginnings, 
into immediate and enduring favor, but among the judicious 
it received, at the most, only the apologetic approval as a thing 
beloved of the crowd. The mere conflict between critical pro- 
nouncements and popular taste is of course not surprising. Many 
parallels will at once occur to every one who reflects for a moment 
upon the history of criticism. But that an age which was so dis- 
tinctly romantic in spirit should have given no sort of critical 
justification to an art-form which it brought to perfection, is an 
instance of critical perversity for which the history of literature 
scarcely contains a parallel. 

The explanation of course lies in the fact that formal and even 
incidental criticism in Engand began in complete subservience to 
classical standards. It was, in fact, an importation pure and sim- 
ple. The sources from which Elizabethan creative literature 
drew its inspiration were, on the other hand, as various as the 
diverse influences which moulded the English Renaissance. It 
was inevitable, therefore, that this literature should come into 
sharp and frequent conflict with the rigid principles of classical 
criticism. The drama in particular was the form for which classicism 
had established fixed conventions; and it was with respect to the 
drama that English classicists adopted the most uncompromising 
attitude. For both comedy and tragedy, the pathway which 
English dramatists should follow was too plain to be missed. 
The theory of Aristotle, with the example of Seneca, Plautus, and 
Terence, left no room for doubt as to what constituted sound dra- 
matic practice. The criteria thus adduced were accepted as a 
matter of course by all upon whom the light of scholarship had 
shed its illuminating rays. Ralph Roister Doister and Gammer 



EARLY ROMANTIC DRAMA IN CONTEMPORARY CRITICISM 131 

Gurtofi's Needle are the results of their appHcation in the domain of 
school comedy; while Gorhoduc and Jocasta are less perfect exam- 
ples of the same principles applied to tragedy. 

But side by side with this child of aristocratic lineage, there 
was growing up another youngster, uncouth but vigorous, upon 
whom the disparaging glances of schoolmasters and scholarly critics 
made very little impression. For notwithstanding the favor shown it 
at Court, the Elizabethan romantic drama was in a literal sense a 
child of the people; and, having none of the traditions of respectabil- 
ity to preserve, it enjoyed in consequence a natural and untrammel- 
led development. Like most things of common origin, its early 
history is shrouded in obscurity. Its primitive examples were sel- 
dom regarded as worthy of preservation even by its friends; and, 
as has been said, the period of its greatest brilliancy raised up for it 
almost no defenders among those whose tastes were regarded as 
having been properly formed. As a result, we are compelled to de- 
pend largely upon the sneering references of hostile critics for our 
knowledge of it during the formative stages of its existence. Even 
such purely incidental remarks are few and meager. It was gener- 
ally regarded as beneath the dignity of criticism, and is usually men- 
tioned as an instance of the barbarity of popular taste. For many 
years it was silently ignored by the advocates of the classical drama, 
who contented themselves merely by producing in the vernacular 
and in Latin examples written in accordance with accepted classical 
principles. 

The earliest recorded attack upon the romantic drama for 
its artistic shortcomings is that made by George Whetstone in the 
preface to his Promos and Cassandra, published in 1578. Whet- 
stone, it will be remembered, was thoroughly committed to the 
doctrine that the drama should not forego its splendid opportunity 
of teaching a lesson. At a time when the "defenders" of poetry 
were marshalHng their resources to repel the Puritan onslaught, 
any preface that rested its case upon the modest plea of poetry 
for its own sake would have been regarded with suspicion even in 
the camp of its friends. Whetstone is at pains, therefore, to show 
that Promos and Cassandra can justify its existence on the score 
of social utihty; and as a moraHst he takes a fling at the contem- 
porary dramatists of Italy, France, and Spain, who, he alleges, 
are "so lascivious in their comedies that honest hearers are grieved 
at their actions." As an artist, however, he protests against the 



132 ROMANTIC DRAMA AT THE ENGLISH COURT 

dull sermonizing of the German playwrights. But the Englishman 
is more culpable than any of his continental brethren, since he 
offends against both moral and artistic propriety; and in pronounc- 
ing his censure, Whetstone is speaking strictly as a classicist who 
has been disgusted with the absurdities of the romantic drama. 
The Englishman's fault he declares to be fundamental,^his "qual- 
ity," wherein he is ''most vaine, indiscreet and out of order." 
The sum of the charges which Whetstone brings against the roman- 
tic dramatist in the exercise of unwarranted liberties is that he 
has had no regard whatever for the so-called classical unities. He 
has crowded the lives and actions of two generations into the space 
of three hours, and in the same brief period he has "run through 
the world, " bringing gods from heaven and devils from hell. With 
all these sins to answer for, he has offended still further by vio- 
lating the sacred principle of decorum, and, for the sake of vulgar 
laughter, has made a clown companion to a king, using one order 
of speech for all persons. 

The interest of Whetstone's preface is not that it announces any 
new principle. In insisting that Englishmen follow the formal 
example of the classics, he is only repeating what the humanists had 
advocated from the beginning Equally familiar also is his demand 
that the drama justify its existence on other than purely artistic 
grounds. But in attacking existing evils, he writes a little chapter 
in the history of the romantic drama at a period when contempo- 
rary records are either silent or else too meager to afford a satis- 
factory account. 

The same is true in an even greater degree of the famous attack 
of Sir Philip Sidney in the Defense of Poesy. Though becoming 
somewhat hackneyed by repeated quotation, this celebrated passage 
has lost none of its importance to the historian of the early English 
drama, and may not improperly be subjected to one more repro- 
duction. After decrying the violation of the unities of time and 
place in even so good a play as Gorboduc, he continues: "But if 
it is so in Gorboduc, how much more in all the rest? Where you 
shall have Asia of the one side and Afric of the other, and so many 
other kingdoms that the player, when he comes in, must ever begin 
by telKng where he is, else the tale will not be conceived. Now 
shall you have three ladies walk to gather flowers, and then we 
must believe the stage to be a garden. By and by we hear news 
of a shipwreck in the same place, and then we are to blame if we 



EARLY ROMANTIC DRAMA IN CONTEMPORARY CRITICISM 133 

accept it not for a rock. Upon the back of that comes out a hideous 
monster with fire and smoke, and then the miserable beholders 
are bound to take it for a cave; while in the meantime two armies 
fly in represented by four swords and bucklers, and then what hard 
heart will not take it for a pitched field? 

"Now of time they are much more liberal, for ordinary it 
is that two young princes fall in love; after many traverses she is 
got with child; delivered of a fair boy; he is lost, groweth a man, 
and is ready to get another child, and all this within two hours 
space; which, how absurd it is in sense, even sense may imagine. 
Lastly, if they will represent a history, they must not, as Horace 
saieth, begin "ab ovo," but they must come to the principle point 
of that one action which they will represent. . . . 

"But besides these gross absurdities, how all their plays be 
neither right tragedies nor right comedies, mingling kings and 
clowns, not because the matter so carrieth it, but thrust in the 
clown by the head and shoulders, to play a part in majestical mat- 
ters, with neither decency nor discretion; so as neither the admira- 
tion and commiseration, nor the right sportfulness, is by their 
mongrel tragicomedies obtained. I know Apulius did somewhat so 
but that is a thing recounted with space of time, not represented 
in one moment : and I know the ancients have one or two examples 
of tragicomedies, as Plautus hath Amphytrio. But, if we mark 
them well, we shall find that they never, or very daintily, match 
hornpipes and funerals."^ 

Taking this unsympathetic characterization in connection 
with Whetstone's preface, and making the necessary allowance in 
each case for the classical prejudice of the writer, we are able to 
draw certain dependable inferences regarding the extensive body of 
romantic drama which is known to have been produced during the 
first twenty-five years of the reign of Elizabeth, but of which we 
have not much more than the titles remaining. Of its crudity and 
extravagance, we may be quite certain, even after allowing gener- 
ously for the animus of Whetstone and Sydney. We see in their 
strictures the embryonic species struggling to be born; the per- 
plexity of the dramatist in his failure to discriminate between 
matter that is essentially narrative, and that which may be made 
to serve the purposes of the drama; his inability to begin otherwise 
than "ab ovo," and his imperfect success in trying to bring within 

'"Defense of Poesy," G. Gregory Smith, Elizabethan Critical Essays, 1, 59-60. 



134 ROMANTIC DRAMA AT THE ENGLISH COURT 

working compass the unwieldy materials of heroic romance; and, 
most clearly of all, perhaps, his readiness still further to encumber 
himself with unassimilated matter from the morality and from 
popular farce. A conglomeration of horse-play and rude melodrama 
must have been the usual result. Such survivals as have reached 
us from this and the period immediately preceding that in which 
Sidney was writing gave little promise of the splendid transforma- 
tion which the despised form was to undergo before the end of the 
century; among them, however, we fancy that we recognize some 
of the particular atrocities which moved the critic to scorn. In 
his sarcastic sketch of the lives of two generations of romance 
heroes Sidney must have been thinking of Amadis, beloved of Don 
Quixote; but while episodes of the cycle had furnished the subject- 
matter for court plays on at least two different occasions, a longi- 
tudinal treatment, such as Sidney's words would seem to imply, 
is not indicated by existing records. But the number and charac- 
ter of such plays that may have found their way upon the popular 
stage, we have no means of knowing. It seems certain that they 
were more numerous than has generally been supposed. We are 
not to infer, however, that it was merely the entertainments of 
the unlettered public against which Sidney is directing critical 
shafts. The few surviving members of the class, — such plays as 
Damon and Pythias, Sir Clyomon and Sir Clamydes, and Common 
Conditions, two of which are known to have been presented before 
the Queen, — are full of the very excesses of which he complains. 
Dragons and monsters, with the accompanying pyrotechnics, 
found their way into the most aristocratic circles. In the Revels 
accounts for 1572-3, among the properties employed for "setting 
foorth sundry playes . . . with other sportes and pastymes for 
her Majesties recreation in Christmas and Shrovetide at Hampton 
Coorte and Green wi tche, " there is an entry for a monster costing 
twenty shillings. ^ Again in the expense accounts for the ofhce of 
the Revels from November 1, 1581 to October 31, 1582 — the very 
period at which Sidney was writing — we find the entry: "To John 
rose for a mount with a castell upon the top, a dragon and an 
artificial tree . . . £C. To him for an artificial Lyon and a horse 
made of wood . , . £VI."3 Elsewhere for the same period we 
read: "The mount, the dragon with the fyer works, Castell with 

' Feuillerat, Documents relating to the Office of the Revels, p. 175. 
3 Ibid. p. 345. 



EARLY ROMANTIC DRAMA IN CONTEMPORARY CRITICISM 135 

the falling sydes, Tree with shields, hermitage and hermit, Savages, 
Enchanter, Charryott, and incydents to to these . . . CCm."* 
These properties were used in a play of which we do not know the 
name, but there is no mistaking the awe-inspiring paraphernelia 
of mediaeval romance. And it is the substitution of classic sim- 
plicity and rationalism for such Gothic splendors and terrors that 
Sidney and Whetstone are contending. 

These appear to be the sole instances in contemporary criti- 
cism in which the rising romantic drama is attacked for its artis- 
tic short-comings. Other assailants there are, to be sure, bitter 
and uncompromising, but their hostility proceeds from a different 
motive. They are the Puritan moraHsts, inheritors of a tradition 
of hostihty toward the drama which proceeds in direct line from 
Chrysostom and Anastasius. The inexorable logic of the more 
extreme members of this party is typically expressed by Stubbs : 
All plays are either of div'ne or profane matter. If divine, they 
are superfluous, because men have the Bible; they are sacrili- 
gious, because the word of God is to be handled reverently, gravely, 
sagely. But if they are of profane matter, they are intolerable, 
for they tend to the dishonor of God and the nourishing of vice.^ 
There is, however, nothing unique either in the contention or in 
the point of view of the sixteenth century Puritan assailants of the 
drama. Nash describes their position not inaccurately when he 
says of them, "These men inveigh against no new vice which here- 
tofore by the censure of the learned hath not been sharply condem- 
ned, but teare that peicemealwise which long since by ancient writers 
was wounded to the death. "'^ The Puritan attacks, however, 
which speedily grew in violence and frequency with the appearance 
of the public theaters and the rapid rise of the drama in popular 
favor, are infinitely rich in matter pertaining to social and literary 
history. The vigorous popular drama, whose existence before this 
time is largely conjectural, begins to be indistinctly seen through 
the mists and fogs of controversy. 

The critics in this instance are looking at the drama not from 
the artistic, but from the moral point of view. They say very 
little from which we may draw conclusions touching the progress 

^Feuillerat, p. 345. 

^ Philip Stubbs, The Anatomie of Abuses, New Shak. Soc. Series VI, 4, 6, Part 1, 
p. 140. 

"T. Nash, "Anatomie of Absurditie," Smith, Elizabethan Crit. Essays, I, 325. 



136 ROMANTIC DRAMA AT THE ENGLISH COURT 

that was being made in the evolution of an artistic popular drama. 
But in their arraignment of the theater for its alleged immorahty 
they make it clear that the great body of this popular drama was 
romantic in theme, and, we may very safely assume, unclassical 
in technique as well. Stephen Gosson, in the second of his series 
of controversial pamphlets, "Plays Confuted in Five Actions" 
(c. 1581), informs us specifically as to what its sources were. "I 
may bo'dly say it," he declares in the oft-quoted passage, "that 
the Palace of Pleasure, The Golden Ass, The Ethiopian History, 
Amadis of France, The Round Table, and bawdy comedies in Latin, 
French, Spanish, and Italian have been ransacked to furnish the 
play houses of London." This list contains representatives of 
every important source of romantic material save one, — the Span- 
ish pastoral romance, whose vogue was even then beginning. Blen- 
ded with the materials and atmosphere of Greek romance, it formed 
in the works of Sidney and Greene the literary fashion that fol- 
lowed hard upon the heels of Euphuism, and left many traces upon 
the drama written around the end of the century. From Gosson's 
remarks, we know that the generation immediately preceding 
Shakespeare had discovered the rich quarry of dramatic material 
afforded by the Italian novelle, which had reached England first 
as the single verse tale and later in Painter's Palace of Pleasure 
and similar collections. The "Romeus and JuHet" which Arthur 
Brooke testifies to having seen upon the stage (c. 1561) is an early 
instance of the utilization of this material for dramatic purposes. 
Elsewhere in Gosson's tract the plays derived from heroic romance 
are singled out for disparaging allusion. "Sometimes you shall see 
nothing," he says, "but the adventures of an amorous knight 
passing from country to country for the love of his lady, encounter- 
ing many a terrible monster made of brown paper, and at his return 
so wonderfully changed he could be known but by some posy in 
his tablet, or by a broken ring or a handkerchief, or a piece of 
cockle shell." Various entries in the account books of the Revels 
ofi&ce come into our minds at the mention of monsters made of 
brown paper. The t>^e of play here suggested, — of which the 
surviving Sir Clyomon and Sir Clamydes is probably a fair exam- 
ple, — was doubtless a favorite with popular audiences ; and we have 
evidence in Henslowe's Diary that their vogue continued until the 
end of the century. 



EARLY ROMANTIC DRAMA IN CONTEMPORARY CRITICISM 137 

As a university man and a former play-wright, Gosson's Puri- 
tan prejudices were probably intensified by something of the 
artist's contempt for these formless productions. Certainly it 
is the wretched technique of the contemporary history play that 
called forth the following comment: "If a true history be taken 
in hand, it is made like our shadows, largest at the rising and 
falUng of the sun, shortest of all at high noon. For the poets drive 
it most commonly into such points as may best show the majesty 
of their pens in tragical speeches; or set their hearers agog with 
scoffs and taunts; or wring in a show to furnish forth the stage 
when it is too bare." This bit of criticism derives additional 
interest from the fact that it is purely gratuitous, — a remark by 
the way upon a feature and a species of the drama which we would 
suppose to have been least objectionable to Gosson. For it will 
be remembered that he was not of those extremists who objected 
to the theater per se. In the School of Abuse he conceded that 
there are ''good plays and sweet plays" — plays worthy even to be 
"sung of the muses." When he stops thus in the midst of his 
polemic to point out the faults in the dramatic methods pursued 
by his opponents, we are inclined to attach all the more signifi- 
cance to his criticism. His words suggest also that the mongrel 
type produced by the blending of history and romance, as illus- 
trated in Edward III and Greene's James IV, where the poet stops 
amid war-like speeches to "set his hearers agog with discourses of 
love," were known even in the early "eighties." The criticism 
that writers of chronicle plays direct their themes so as to "show 
the majesty of their pens in tragical speeches" suggests the bom- 
bast of Locrine and Selimus; while their readiness to leave the 
historical matter and "paint a few antics to fit their own humours" 
might be aptly illustrated in the excessive clownage of The Famous 
Victories of Henry V. Indeed all that Gosson says on this head 
applies very forcibly to our earliest extant chronicle plays, though, 
so far as we know, none of them had been produced at the time he 
was writing. The conclusion is that they have preserved the 
general characteristics of even cruder examples of the same type 
which went before them. 

The subject-matter of the young romantic drama can be easily 
seen as the chief support for the charge of gross and flagrant immor- 
ality which the Puritan reformers brought against the English 
theater. Thus, when Stubbs, in the Anatomie of Abuses, declares 



138 ROML\NTIC DRAMA AT THE ENGLISH COURT 

that, ''Of Comedies the matter and ground is love, bawdrie, cosen- 
age, flattery, whoredome, adultrie, " and that "the Persons, or 
agents, are whores, queanes, bawds, scullions, knaves, curtezans, 
lecherous old men and amorous young men,"^ etc., we perceive 
that he is transferring to the drama the sentiments, and some- 
thing of the language, which Ascham had expressed some years 
earlier concerning the whole body of romantic literature, whether 
of mediaeval romance or later ItaHan novella. It was probably 
the romantic c medy of intrigue that Stubbs had particularly 
in mind in this denunciation, — the "bawdie comedies in Latin, 
French, Spanish, and Italian," which Gosson declared had been 
"ransacked to furnish forth the English stage." English adap- 
tations of this genre begin with Calisto aiid Melihea, which came from 
the press of John Rastell when the century was still young. The 
Bugbears (1561), a translation of Grazzini's La Spirita, Gascoigne's 
more famous adaptation of Ariosto, The Supposes, and Mun- 
day's Two Italian Gentlemen, are the extant representatives of 
Italy's contribution to this species of romantic drama. There 
were also several translations from Italian into Latin for perfor- 
mance upon the English university stage. Gosson's own Captain 
Mario, described as a "cast of Italian devices," may have been 
of the same affiliation, while the Frederick and Basilea, which 
exists in "platte" among the papers of Edward Alleyn, probably 
belonged to the species known as the commedia deWarte, in which 
a story was acted by means of improvised dialogue. Several lost 
court plays of the period were very probably adaptations of Italian 
dramatic originals. When we add to these the direct dramati- 
zation of the work of the ItaHan novelists, we see that the number of 
romantic plays founded upon the various motives of intrigue must 
have been considerable; and there is small wonder, on ihe whole, 
that they should have aroused the bitterest hostility of the Puri- 
tans. The less tolerant replied with mockery and derision when 
it was urged that the stage might be turned to good account in 
instructing men in matters of conduct and right living. Hear 
Stubbs on the subject of the ethical instruction to be obtained 
at the theater: "If you will learne falsehood; if you will learne 
cosenage; if you will learne to deceive; if you will learne to play 
the Hipocrit, to cogge, lye, and falsify; if you will learne to play 
the vice; to swear, teare, and blaspheme both Heaven and Earth: 

"> Anatomic of Abuses, New Shak. Soc, Series VI, 4, 6, Part 1, p. 143. 



EARLY ROMANTIC DRAMA IN CONTEMPORARY CRITICISM 139 

If you will learne to become a bawd, uncleane, and to devirginate 
Mayds, and to deflower honest Wyves; if you will learne to mur- 
ther, flaye, kill, picke, steal, robbe and rove: If you will learne 
to rebel against Princes, to commit treasons, to consume trea- 
sures, to practise Ydleness, to sing and talke of bawdie love 
and venery; if you will learne to deride, scoffe, mock and 
flowt, to flatter and smooth; if you will learn to play the whore- 
maister, the glutton, Drunkard or incestuous person: if you 
will learn to become proude, hawtie, and arrogant; and, finally, 
if you will lerne to condemn God and all his laws, to care neither 
for heaven nor hel, and to commit all kind of sin and mischief, 
you need go to no other school. "^ 

The foregoing passages are typical of the references to the early 
romantic drama, both in criticism proper, and in the Puritan 
attacks. As actual historical data, they leave much to be desired; 
yet in the present state of our information they are invaluable to 
the student of the early drama. The one incontrovertible fact 
that shines through them is, that upon the romantic drama in 
particular were heaped the contempt and ridicule of the classi- 
cal critics and the most virulent abuse of the Puritan reformers. 
But other matters of particular significance are present by impli- 
cation. From this welter of vituperation and ridcule the fol- 
lowing inferences may be safely drawn: 

1. That by 1580, the body of dramatic literature upon roman- 
tic themes was much larger than the number of surviving plays 
and the evidence of contemporary records would seem to indicate. 

2. That these plays were called into being, for the most part, 
to meet the demands of popular audiences. 

3. That the various sources of romantic literature had been 
drawn upon for this material, and that the several types of roman- 
tic drama were already familiar. 

4. That the heroic play, founded upon the mediaeval romance 
of adventure, was a favorite, especially with popular audiences. 

5. That judged from a technical and literary point of view, 
these plays were, as a rule, of a low order of merit, having but 
slight regard for the boundary fine between comedy and tragedy, 
and catering to the public taste with Uberal admixtures of popular 
farce and sensational melodrama. 



* Anatomic of Abuses, p. 145. 



140 ROMANTIC DRAMA AT THE ENGLISH COURT 

We have said that the hostile attitude assumed toward the 
English romantic drama by the exponents of classical culture was 
due to the fact that the classical drama and the classic theory 
of dramatic art had been favorite subjects of study among the 
English humanists from an early day. The rules and principles 
of Aristotle, with the additions which they received at the hands 
of the sixteenth century humanists, were thoroughly known and 
greatly revered. Such shameless monstrosities, therefore, as the 
nondescript tragicomedies, which in three hours' time "ran through 
the world" and encompassed the whole Hfe of man — which belonged 
to no category and recognized no law — were unfit even for the gross 
appetites of the rabble. Such unquestionably is the import of 
the language of Cheke, Ascham, Whetstone, and Sidney. But 
in view of the fact that what obtained in actual practice was a 
vigorous and headlong romanticism, the question arises whether, 
after all, the classicists' objections were not largely academic, and 
not much more vital than the insistence upon classical meters. 
How much of the expressed hostiUty to the romantic drama was 
due to the fact that it had long been the fashion in learned circles 
to sneer at whatever lacked the flavor of classical antiquity? How 
sincere was the insistence upon strict regularity in matters of 
form? What was the critical attitude toward imaginative lit- 
erature in general, and particularly toward the unfaiHng source 
of romantic ideas and inspiration, the Middle Ages? 

Whatever answer we might find for these questions, it is quite 
clear that the native dramatic impulse was too strong to be made 
to yield, except in a minor degree, to the restraints of classical 
precedent. The actual number of plays which conform to human- 
istic standards is comparatively small, and these are represented 
largely by the artificial Latin drama of the universities. Even 
the greatly beloved Senecan tragedy yielded to the inspired genius 
of Marlowe and Kyd. The sober and stately Gorboduc is held 
up by Sidney as an example of romantic license. Whetstone, it 
is true, sought to strengthen precept by example in making his 
dramatized Itahan novella conform to the Aristotehan principles 
of structure, and the Arthurian legends are made by the young 
scholars of Gray's Inn, to yield "a truly Thyestian history of a 
noble house devoted for its crimes of insolence to ruin." But the 
force of these examples was no more effective than the ridicule 
of Sidney in staying the on-coming flood of romanticism. What- 
ever the canons of criticism might approve, the temper of the 
pubUc was fiercely and aggressively unclassical. 



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INDEX 

Alanus de Inuiiss, 5. Alfonso the Great, 5. Allegory, origin of, 4. Amyot, 
67. Anglia, 2. Anne Boleyn, 13, 27. Apius and Virginia, 90, 106. Archaeologia, 1. 
Arnalt and Lucinda, 72. Arte of English Poesie, 51. Arthur, 25, 26, 30, 31, 33, 34. 
Ascham's Schoolmaster, 49. 

Baskerville, vii, 119. Bel-Acueil, hberation of, 15. Bertrand de Guesclin, 30. 
Bevis of Hampton, 50, 52. Bien Avise, Mai Avise, 6. Bins, 29. Boethius' Consola- 
tio Philosophiae, 5. Bond, J. W., 35, 39. "Brief and Necessary Instruction," 50. 
Brooke, T., 89. Brotanek, 1, 4, 15, 29. Brunhuber, 103. Brute, 26. Bugbears, 
138. Burckhardt, 6, 9, 10, 11. 

Cadwallader, 26. Calisto and Melibea, 90. Castle allegory, development of, 
14 ff. Castle, attack upon, 14. Castle of Beauty, 8, 21. Castle of Loyalty, 20. 
Celestina, 58. Chambers, 9, 31. Charles V, 28, 31. Chateau d'Amour, attacks upon, 
23. Chateau de Ham-sur-Somme, tournament at, 28. Children of the Chapel, 66. Chil- 
dren of Westminster, 62. Chinon of England, 59. Collier, 1, 6, 23, 54. Commedia 
deir Arte, 138 Common Conditions, VI, 89 ff. Anomalies- in the plot of, 95. Flavor 
of Greek romance in, 101. Probable date of, 89. Meter used in, 106. Probable 
source of, 96 ff. Courthope, 4. Creizenach, 14, 79, 83. Crestien de Troyes, 28. 

Damon and Pythias, 106. Defense of Rhyme, 52. De la Rue, 28, 30. Dis- 
guisings at marriage of Prince Arthur, 5 ff. Durer, Albert, 9. Dramatic criticism, 
attitude of toward romantic drama, 131; origin of in England, 130. 

Earl of Cumberland, 35. Earl of Leceister's men, 81, 83, 85. Earl of War- 
wick's servants, 69, 76. Edward III, 25, 29. Edward VI, 13, 42. Elizabeth, plays 
presented before, 62 ff. Elizabe«^han drama, first period in, 87; meters used in, 106. 
Erasmus, 49. 

Fairholt, 9, 10, 27. Famous Victories of Henry V, 137. Felix and Felismina, 86. 
Feuillerat, 13, etc. Floris and Blauncheflur, 5. Florisel de Niquea, 73, 75. For- 
tune, mask of, 4. Foster Children of Desire, 21. Four Prentices, 56. French Society 
of Antiquaries, 12. Froissart, 19. Fulk Greville, 21, 41. 

Gammer Gurton's Needle, 106. Gascoigne, 33, 35. Geraldi, 96. Gerilion 
oi England, 53. Gerould, G. H., 93. Godfrey of Bouillon, 30. Gosson, 126. Griisse, 
26, 30. Greek romances, 68. Green's Tu Quoque, 10. Greene's James IV, 137. 
Guinevere, 28. Guy of Warwick, 31, 50, 52. 

Hall, 10, 16, 19, 27, 32. Hampton Court, 27. Haupt, 11. Howes, 19, 32. 
Hazlitt, 63. Henry VII, 44. Henry VIII, pageant at court of, 12, 16, 20, 27; Letters 
and Papers of, 17, 18, 26, Henslowe's Diary, 71, 77, 84. Herpetulus, 70. History 
of the CoUier, 83. Hoby's Courtier, 42. HoKnshed, 31. Huon of Bordeaux, 52. 

Italian novelle, use of in drama, 61. Irish Knight, 69. 

Kempe, Losely MSS., 13. Kenilworth, Elizabeth's entertainment at, 33. Knight 
of the Lion, 28. Knight of Burning Rock, 76. Kittredge, 90, 108. 

Lady Barbara, 79. Laneham's Letter, 33. Landau, 101. Le Chasteau d' 
Amour, 15, 19. Legend of Perseus, 119. Locrine, 137. Lord Berners, 52. Lord 



INDEX ^^' 

Chamberlain's Company, 81. Lord Howard's Servants, 71. Love's Labour's Lost, 
30. /7(Ji of Edward, III, 1. Lydgate, 2 ff. Lyly, 39, 75. 

Masks, symbolism in, 46; portrayal of character in, 45; influence upon technical 
factors of drama, 43. Masque of the Twelve Months, 23. Man tried by Fate, 93. 
Mediaeval literature, surviving interest in, 49. MeUadus, 69. Meres, 51. Misogo- 
nus, 90. Moriz von Craon, 11. Morte D'Arthur, 34. Mount of Love, 7, 11. 

Nash, 51, "Anatomie of Absurditie," 135. Neilson, 4, 12, 14, 23. Nichols, 
21, 29, 30. Nine Worthies, 30, 46, 56. 

Old Wives' Tale, 70. Ommeganck, 9. Orlando Furioso, 79. Orpheus, 
stor>^ of in pageantry, 13. 

Painter's Palace of Pleasure, 48. Palladine of England, 55. Palmerin d' 
Oliva 55 Panecia, 84. Pantomime, 84. Paris, Gaston, 11. Paris and Vienna, 
62 ff ' Parsimus, 59. Perceforest, 113 ff. Perrot, Joseph de, 77. Petit de JuUe- 
vUle 6 Phaer, 106. Philip II, 28, 31. Phigon and Lucia, 81. Placidas, 83. Pope 
CWnt V, 26. Prince Arthur, visit to Coventry, 29. Puritan hostiUty to the drama, 
135. 

Rape of the Second Helen, 75. Ratcliffe, Sir Thomas, 22. Red Rose Knight, 
56 ff Reyher 2. Richard Bower, 90. Robert Bruce, 30, 31. Robert Compte 
d'Artois, 37. Robert Wilson, 108. Robm Hood's Foresters, 11. Roger Mortimer, 
25 Rolandinus Pativinus, 24. Romances of chivalry used in masks, 25. Roman de 
la Fortune, 5. Roman de Judas Machabee, 30. Roman de la Rose, 4, 15. Roman- 
ische Forschungen, 64. Romantic AUegories, 3. Rouge Dragon, 26. Round Table, 

25. Ryche Mounte, pageant of, 12. 

Schroder, Edw., 11. Schultz, 25, 26. Segar, 35. Selimus, 137. Shakespeare, 
6 23 48 Ship, origin of in pageantry, 8. Sidney, Sir PhUip, 21, 42, 132. Sir 
Clyomon and Sir Clamvdes, authorship of, 108; meter used in, 107; plot of, 110; source 
of 113 ff.; probable date of, 105. Sir Henry Lee, 35. Sir Robert Lane's men, 79. 
Six Worthies, 31. Solitary Knight, 71. Sources of early drama, 49. St. Barbara, 

26. St. George, 26. Stow, John, 1. Stubbs, 135. Supposes, 138. S>Tnbolism in 
masks, 5 ff. 

Thersites 90 Tilt-yard fictions, French influence upon, 37. Theogenes and 
Chariclea, 67. 'Titus and Gisippus, 85. Tottel's Miscellany, 106. Tragedy of the 
King of Scottes, 66. Trionfo, 9. Tudor love of gaiety, 29. Two Itahan Gentlemen, 
138. 

Valentine and Orson, 29. Venusberg, 12. Virgin Martyr, 82. Vives, 50. 
Voeux du Paon, 30, 127. Voretzsch, Karl, 5. 

Walsingham, 25, 35. Warton, 1. Whetstone's Promos and Cassandra, 131. 
Wild Men in pageants, 11, 12. Wolff, S. L., 67. 



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